


A Divinity That Shapes Our Ends

by alexcat



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Multi, Other, Threesome - M/M/M, lots of smut, torn between 2 lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:29:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 30,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28150908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexcat/pseuds/alexcat
Summary: Steve loves Bucky and Steve loves Tony. Can he choose? Will he have to? Will the world end before it matters?
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 1
Kudos: 44
Collections: Marvel Big Bang 2020





	A Divinity That Shapes Our Ends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Huntress79](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huntress79/gifts).



> Many thanks to Liv21 for her beta reading and to Jenny for her reading and for her drawing of Stevie.  
> Huntress79's beautiful artwork can be found here: [**The Divinity That Shapes Our Ends**](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28382958)
> 
>  _“There's a divinity that shapes our ends,_  
>  _Rough-hew them how we will.”_  
>  ~ Shakespeare, _Hamlet_

[ ](https://imgur.com/uGvM8y2)

Part 1 –

Steve hadn’t seen Bucky in his uniform until Bucky rescued him from the goon from the movie theater. Seeing that uniform made the whole thing real. Bucky was going off to war and he’d be stuck here at home. 

“You look great. Get your orders?” Steve asked him, trying to keep his voice casual. 

“Yep, shipping out for England, first thing tomorrow.”

“You should get going then,” Steve told him. 

“Nah. We gotta get you cleaned up. We have dates tonight.” 

Bucky had found two pretty sisters for them to date. As usual, they both liked Bucky. He figured when he saw them leaving the Stark Expo, that that was the last he’d see of Buck until after the war was over. He wandered around for a while and headed home. 

He’d seen the recruiter’s tent at the Expo and decided he’d head back the next night and try to enlist again. Maybe the Army would realize that he could die as well as the next guy, even if he was small and puny. 

He was pouring a drink when someone tapped on the door. 

“You there, Steve?”

It was Bucky. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be on a date?” Steve let him in and motioned to the bottle. Bucky nodded and Steve poured him a glass as well. Bucky looked so good in that uniform. The Army probably didn’t even have one small enough for him. 

“I took ‘em home. Wanted to spend my last night home with you.” 

Steve’s heart raced. He and Bucky had never shared more than a few awkward kisses and hugs over the years, but Steve loved Bucky with all his heart. To say that he wanted Bucky as well was a huge understatement. 

“What do you want to do?” Steve asked, his mouth going a little dry. He wanted to ask Bucky for a kiss, at the very least, but he wasn’t sure how. The kisses they’d shared had been spontaneous and they’d never talked about them at all. 

Bucky’s eyes danced with mischief and something else, something Steve wasn’t quite certain about. “We’ll figure something out,” was all he said as he tossed back the drink and poured another. 

“I figured you’d be out all night with those dames,” Steve told him.

“Nah. They just wanted to be seen with a soldier. I – Stevie, you remember when we slept in my cousin’s car at the Jersey Shore?” 

Of course he did. They’d driven once to Jersey to the shore and since they didn’t have a room or money for one, they’d slept in Bucky’s cousin’s car. That was the night Bucky had first kissed him. They were drunk and, in the course of saying goodnight, Bucky had laughingly kissed him goodnight, except the kiss had been more than a joke. Bucky had pulled him close and it had deepened into much more than a friendly kiss. They’d both been a little breathless and embarrassed when they’d broken apart. 

“Yeah?” His heart was still pounding. He’d get an attack soon if he didn’t calm down. Luckily he had his inhaler to help if things got too bad.

Bucky blushed, something his brash friend seldom did. “I came back here for you.” Bucky’s voice was low, sexy. He’d heard that voice with Bucky and his dates sometimes. 

“Buc -” he started to say something, but he got no farther than halfway through Bucky’s name when Bucky kissed him, a quick peck followed by a long, wet kiss. Steve wrapped his arms around Bucky and kissed him back. 

Bucky pulled back and looked down at Steve, who was wrapped in his arms by now. “I came back for you, Steve. I thought we might spend the night together.”

There was no doubt what he meant. Steve felt Bucky hard against him. He needed to know how long Bucky had felt this way, though. He had to be sure it was because he wanted to be with him, rather than he had been turned down by his date. 

“You didn’t come here because the girl said no, did you?” Steve was scared that he’d ruined everything as soon as the words were out of his mouth.

Bucky laughed. “Not a chance, punk. I dumped her and came here as fast as I could.” 

“Are you saying -” Steve didn’t get that sentence out either before Bucky began kissing him again. 

Bucky began tugging at Steve’s tie, untying it quickly and pulling it out from his collar. The jacket came next, then both of them began working the buttons. Steve started on the belt of Bucky’s uniform. 

“You need to hang this up so it won’t wrinkle,” Steve told him. 

Bucky grinned and nodded. “Not sure I want to answer my ma’s questions about how it got so wrinkled, so yeah.” Steve was shirtless when he went to his bedroom to find a hanger. Bucky followed. 

Steve watched as Bucky undressed down to his underwear. He noticed that Bucky’s hard on tented his boxers in the front. Steve dropped his own pants, taking the time to hang them up before turning back to Bucky. 

Bucky’s eyes were glued to the front of Steve’s underwear, lust quite apparent in his gaze. He sat on the bed and opened his arms. “Come here, Steve.” 

Steve obeyed, moving to Bucky’s embrace. 

“Don’t know what I’ll do without you. We’ve been together since – forever,” Steve whispered.

They kissed again and Steve’s breath hissed out when Bucky’s warm hand slipped under his shorts and touched him. No one had ever touched him there before. He didn’t say anything; in fact, he forgot to breathe for a few seconds. 

Bucky stopped his caresses and slipped Steve’s shorts off. 

“Yours too,” Steve told him. Bucky moved enough to slide them off and both men were naked now. “Why did you wait so long?” Steve asked as Bucky’s hands slipped around behind to cup his ass cheeks. 

“I was afraid you’d say no. You talk too much, Stevie,” Bucky said as he pushed Steve back onto the bed and kissed him. They shifted around so they were lying side by side. Bucky moved onto his side and then he lay almost on top of Steve. His cock pressed against Steve’s hip as they kissed. Bucky ran a hand down Steve’s chest, down below his waist, taking Steve into his hand again. Steve thrust into Bucky’s hand while Bucky humped Steve’s flank. They kissed as they strained against one another. 

It didn’t take long for Steve to know he was close. The thought crossed his mind that he wasn’t sure he wanted Bucky to see him so undone, so vulnerable. Need and desire were stronger than any shame he felt. He closed his eyes and concentrated on how good Bucky’s hand felt as it slid up and down his length. He came quite suddenly and intensely in Bucky’s grasp, spilling himself all over Bucky’s hand and his own belly. 

Bucky slid his hand across Steve’s body to hold him tighter, to be able to rub himself harder against Steve’s flank. He threw his leg over Steve’s body. Steve reached his hand down between them and grasped Bucky, letting him fuck his hand. Then Bucky was coming in his hand, against his leg. Steve sought Bucky’s mouth, kissing him again as he stopped moving and went still. 

Steve found a towel and they both cleaned up a little. They put their underwear back on and Bucky was lying on his back, looking at the ceiling. Steve was afraid he’d go and he desperately wanted to spend the rest of the night with Bucky. He was terrified that he’d never see him again. 

“Okay if I stay tonight? My ma said to come home for breakfast, so I guess she figured we’d live it up tonight.”

Steve lay back down beside Bucky, putting his head on his shoulder. “I’d love for you to stay.”

*

Bucky left early the next morning and the next time Steve saw him, he was lying in Schmidt’s lab. Steve was a different man, a soldier and a hero, though he usually still felt a lot like little Stevie who’d fallen in love with Bucky what seemed like a hundred years before. 

Bucky had been back at the camp for only a couple of days. Steve wanted to ask him if he remembered, if he felt the same but it seemed not to be terribly important in the face of everything that had happened. 

He need not have worried. He was in his tent, getting ready to sleep when Bucky stuck his head in. “Can I, uh, come in?” 

“Sure, Buck. I can’t get enough of the sight of you.”

Bucky came in and made sure the door was secured. He approached Steve, looking very unsure of himself. “Remember when your ma died and I told you we’d be together ‘til the end of the line?” 

Steve nodded. “Of course. It’s kept me going many days and nights when I wanted to quit.”

Bucky visibly relaxed. “Do you remember the night before I left?” 

Steve put his hands on Bucky’s shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. “Of course I do. It was the best night of my life.” 

Bucky slumped against Steve, hugging him. “I thought maybe you’d forgotten or maybe didn’t want to remember.” 

“I’ve been trying to figure out how to get you to spend the night with me,” Steve told him. 

“Ask me,” Bucky said with a wide smile. 

“Will you stay with me tonight?” 

Minutes later, they were naked and in one another’s arms. 

*

Steve was happier than he’d ever been, having Bucky here to go on missions with him and to spend the nights with him as well. They were careful in front of the others, but Steve knew that there were other guys who ‘comforted’ one another, too. He’d heard them in their tents and even in the woods sometimes. 

The war was not easy though. Johann Schmidt was an evil bastard and Steve was determined to stop him. Bucky was just as determined and just as brave. Hell, all the Howling Commandos wanted the son of a bitch stopped. 

Peggy and Howard were also as determined. Steve really liked Peggy, but he knew he couldn’t push Bucky away for her. Bucky meant more to him than anything. 

And then he lost Bucky on that train! Zola cost Bucky his life! 

He’d turned to Peggy and she’d taken him in, become his friend, his lover. 

One night, as he lay in her bed, she looked at him in the dim light. “I know that you and Bucky were - ” she seemed to be searching for the right word, “together.” 

He didn’t say anything, not sure what to say. He loved her and was sure he’d have crashed and burned without her since Bucky was gone. He didn’t think he could bear to lose her too, right now. 

“Oh, I’m okay with it. I meant I understand your loss, Steve.” She snuggled closer to him. “I lost someone, too. It’s why I fight.” 

In the end, he was the one who’d gotten lost and stayed lost for over 65 years. 

~~

Part 2 –

He was having trouble with reality – how could it be 2011? He’d been frozen for most of a century! 

Everyone he’d known was gone. This man named Fury had given him a handful of dossiers on people he might be working with now that he’d been thawed. He thumbed through them. Barton – a former circus performer, Romanov – a Russian spy, Banner – a giant green monster and a brilliant scientist, and Stark – son of Howard and Maria Stark. He stopped dead in his tracks. 

Howard Stark’s son? 

He was what – forty-one years old? His photo looked a little like Howard. He had several doctorates and was brilliant – like his father. He was known for his wild lifestyle. Howard was never seen with the same girl twice either. 

This Stark sounded like a piece of work. 

And he was Iron Man – a flying hero who built his own suit. 

Fury made it sound like he’d meet them soon. He said something about the Avengers Initiative, whatever that was. He wasn’t even sure what it was that Fury was fighting against in this new world. He supposed he’d find out soon enough. 

Soon actually was sooner than he expected. It was only a few weeks after he’d been thawed and was back in New York from some godforsaken cabin somewhere, that Fury came for him. 

He was on this crazy, huge ass plane thing in no time with Romanov and Banner. They were on the way to Germany. Someone had stolen that damned cube that Schmidt had used in the 40s and they were in Stuttgart. They even had a suit made for him and it looked similar to the one he’d worn all those years ago. 

Loki was strutting around looking like a refugee from a comic book when Steve hit the ground in Stuttgart. Nothing could have prepared him for Stark though. The fight wasn’t going so well when Iron Man hit the ground. 

It was funny, but he knew that everything in his world shifted when Tony Stark landed and called Loki Reindeer Games. He had no idea how much it would shift further over the next few years. 

The animosity was almost instantaneous when they met on the helicarrier headed back to New York. Tony flipped his visor up and Steve stared. He was not the image of Howard Stark exactly, but he certainly captured the spirit of his father. 

They argued and then they fought together to save the helicarrier. They worked together like they’d known one another for their whole lives. They fought to save New York and when it was done, Steve had never been so glad to see anyone as he was Stark when Banner caught him on his freefall to earth. 

When Stark cracked, “Please tell me nobody kissed me,” Steve had been tempted to do just that. He was that glad to see Stark alive. 

Later, after the shawarma, they’d all gone to Stark Tower to spend the night. Somehow Steve found himself in Stark’s suite. 

“Did they do a decent job on your suit?” Tony asked him. “I might have contributed a few things to the construction.”

“It’s great. The old one itched all the time and rode up in the crotch. It always pinched the hell out of me.” 

“Coulson was so excited to help with the design. Phil was a great guy. Sorry you won’t get to know him,” Tony told him. 

Tony was moving quite gingerly now that everything was done. 

“Do you need a hand here? You landed pretty hard and took a lot of punishment out there.” 

Tony said no, then got up from the couch. “Uh, let’s revisit that. I’m not as young as I once was. If you’d just help me off with this shirt, I’ll let you get back to your quarters. They did give you quarters, didn’t they? JARVIS, does Cap have quarters?” 

Steve was momentarily shocked at the disembodied voice who answered, “Yes, sir. He was assigned quarters on the 87th floor, sir, near Miss Romanov’s and Mr. Barton’s.”

Tony saw his shock. “JARVIS – he’s my AI.”

“AI?” Sometimes Steve felt quite like an idiot in the 21st century. 

“Artificial Intelligence. He helps me do – well, most everything.”

Steve nodded though he wasn’t sure what any of what Stark said had meant. 

Steve remembered that Stark had asked him for some help with his shirt and he stood. “I’ll help you with the shirt and then I’ve leave you to – it.”

Steve found himself undressing Stark as a parent might undress a sleepy toddler. He tried to get the shirt off without moving Stark any more than he had to. Steve tried not to stare at the Arc Reactor embedded in Tony’s chest. 

“It’s an Arc Reactor and it powers the suit. And me. I got shrapnel in my chest in Afghanistan and this keeps it from killing me.” 

Steve got the impression that not many people actually got to see the Arc Reactor. 

“You can touch it if you want. Just don’t tell the others. I – uh, don’t want Barton poking me in the chest.” He said it in jest, but Steve caught a note of something else there, too. He seemed almost self-conscious about it. 

Steve hesitated. 

“Go on. It won’t shock you.” 

Steve reached his hand out and ran one finger around the lighted area. He felt Tony tremble as well. 

“I need to get out of your hair,” Steve said as he started to go. 

“I might need help putting a shirt back on,” Tony said. 

Steve laughed. “Let me get a shower and I’ll come back and give you a hand.”

Stark agreed and he did just that, heading back to Stark’s penthouse with still damp hair. 

“Want some dinner, Cap?” Tony asked. “It’s been a while since the shawarma and I could eat.” 

Steve was always hungry. It was a byproduct of the serum – it took a lot of food to fuel a supersoldier. “Sure, I can always eat.”

Tony had JARVIS order some burgers and fries from a fast food joint down the street from the tower. 

“So you knew Howard?” 

“Yeah. He helped – uh – make me. It was Erskine’s serum and your dad’s Vita-Ray machine that made it work. He was in Europe with us as well. Peggy said your dad was a great pilot.”

“He talked about you a lot. A lot!” 

Dinner arrived and they ate, chatting about Tony’s father and Steve’s memories of him. Steve didn’t even notice until later that Tony actually said very little about him and his father together. 

* 

Tony Stark was much more excited about meeting Steve Rogers than anyone could imagine. As a kid, he’d made Captain America his idol in an attempt to garner his father’s approval. That hadn’t worked any more than anything else had, but he had learned a lot about Rogers and sort of hero worshipped him from his father’s stories and all the books and information he could find. 

And like Tony did with anything he really liked, when he met Steve in real life, he tried to break him. Or at least insult him. 

He could have smacked his own face at the things he had said to Cap in the Quinjet and later on the helicarrier. They really had almost come to blows. The friction between them had excited the hell out of Tony, though even he wasn’t completely sure why. But not nearly as excited as he was when Rogers agreed to come back after helping him get his shirt off and they had dinner. 

They watched some television, Steve seemingly content to listen to Tony chatter about a little of everything. Even supersoldiers got tired and it was after midnight when Steve finally stood up. 

“I’m going to turn in. You get some sleep, too.” 

He let himself out. 

Tony stared at the door for a long time. He knew he was going to make a fool out of himself over Rogers. He’d known it since Fury told him they’d found Captain America in the ice. It would seem he’d made a good start already. 

*

“Fury is getting a little too nosy,” Alexander Pierce said to Jasper Sitwell. “I don’t want to act too soon.” 

“I agree. He’s pretty focused on playing with his Avengers right now. Maybe we put Rumlow and his team with Rogers and Romanov to keep an eye on things.”

“We always have the Asset if we need him.”

Sitwell cringed. He’d seen what the Asset could do and he hoped it didn’t come to that. He might be HYDRA, but he still liked Fury. The man was a legend in SHIELD circles. 

~~

Part 3 

Life at Stark Tower was odd. It was a bit like barracks life and if Steve were to guess, maybe a bit like dormitory life. They had apartments – all on the 87th floor except for Stark’s suite, but it _was_ his building. His suite was on the top floor, right above the R&D labs. 

Steve’s place was, by far, the nicest apartment he’d ever lived in. It certainly beat the rundown apartment he’d lived in as a kid. Funny how he’d never noticed how shabby the place was until Ma died. She’d certainly made it feel like a home. 

They all had their own kitchens, but all of them seemed to gravitate toward the large communal kitchen down at the end of the hall. It was big enough for them all to sit around the table and eat, but cozy enough to seem like a kitchen in someone’s home. All anyone had to do to get their favorite food stocked was add it to the list on the door of one of the two fridges. 

Stark probably spent the least amount of time there. He was usually in his personal workshop or on one of the R&D floors. He was with Pepper Potts – publicly, at least. Steve had seldom seen her around the living area of the building, though she had offices on one of lower floors. 

Steve was sitting in the kitchen, drinking coffee. It was early, too early go out for a run yet as it was still dark. He liked some alone time to begin the day. There was still a lot for him to process in this new world. 

“What’s up, Cap?” Tony had come in without him even noticing. 

“Morning, Stark. Just waiting for daylight to go for a run.”

“’Fraid of the dark?” Stark raised an eyebrow.

“Nope. I just like to be out in the sunshine.” 

“You’re one of _those_.”

“Those what?” Steve asked. 

“Those sunny people who look on the bright side, who like daylight.”

Steve laughed out loud. “An optimist?”

“Yeah, one of those things.” Stark made himself a coffee. 

Steve laughed. “Not sure I’d call me that.”

“What would you call it?” Stark was digging through the large bowl of fresh fruit on the kitchen table. He finally chose an apple, a huge honey crisp with a red and gold skin. He shined it on his t-shirt. 

“I guess I’m still on Army time.” 

Stark bit into his apple. “My dad was always up at the crack of dawn, too. I thought it was just an old people thing.” 

Steve laughed. “Could be.” 

“Come to the workshop this afternoon. We’ll work on the suit. I think I can make some more improvements with you here to tell me what you want?”

“You just want to get in my pants.”

Stark stopped and stared at him for a moment then laughed. “Yeah. That’s it.” 

*

The suit improvements had to wait. 

The call came in while Steve was out running. Tony was tinkering with some ideas he had for a new phone rollout coming up in a few months from SI. 

It was Hill who called Stark. 

“Tony, we believe that alien tech is being used in a prison break in Virginia. The people breaking in may be the Maggia. At least one of them we have on security cam looks like a known enforcer.”

“Do we know who they’re breaking out?” 

“No, but we believe a woman known only as Madame Masque is spearheading the operation.” 

Tony had heard of her. He’d had some trouble with her when SI had stopped making weapons after his ordeal in Afghanistan. Iron Man had destroyed one of their warehouses that stored a lot of Stark explosives. It had made a big splash when it had blown up, taking several blocks of warehouses with it. Madame Masque had crawled back in her hole. 

But only for a while, it now seemed. 

“I know her.” He filled Hill in on the details. 

“And I’m just hearing this now?” she asked, clearly irritated. 

“I didn’t work for SHIELD then. Actually, I don’t work for SHIELD now either. We’ll look into it.” He ended the call and called Steve. 

“Rogers, we’ve got a mission. Wheels up asap.”

Stark flew himself, but the rest of the team traveled on a Quinjet to the prison. It was a low security federal prison. 

“Do we know who they’re there to break out?” Steve asked Natasha. 

She was looking at her computer. “There is an associate of the Nafaria family there, a lawyer serving time on a federal perjury conviction. Randall Dixon’s his name.” 

“He was engaged to Kristine Longfellow, who is rumored to be Giulietta Nefaria, daughter of the founder of the Maggia,” she continued. 

Tony’s voice came in over the speaker in plane from his suit. “She is probably Madame Masque as well. Many years ago, we ran in the same social circles. She was the adopted daughter of a financier who did business with my dad.” 

Natasha cut in, “And you dated her, too. Were you going to tell us that tidbit?” 

“I’m not sure it’s relevant,” Tony answered. 

Steve spoke up. “It’s not right now. Let’s stop these people or find them if they’ve gotten away.”

They landed. The prison was low security, which meant that it still had guards and was locked. But it was nothing like the prisons in movies or television. For a group like the Maggia to breech it, it was not hard, especially if they were using Chitauri tech, as reported. 

Stark flew straight to the front of the main building. Steve dropped out of the cloaked Quinjet inside the fence as well. The front doors to the building, where the warden’s office was located, were blown off. Two men in black ops type gear stood guard. 

“What the -” was all they got out before the heroes subdued them both, removing their weapons and rendering them unconscious.

Black Widow and Hawkeye arrived at that moment. They left Natasha and Clint to their task of cleaning up any strays they found and headed for the warden’s office, and there she was, Madame Masque. 

“Iron Man! And a bonus, Captain America!” She crowed. Madame Masque was an appropriate name as her face was covered in a golden mask and she had a suit not unlike Rogers’. She was tall and slim, but with definite feminine curves in her tight suit. Steve wondered what she looked like under the mask. 

“Krissy, what are you doing here?” Tony called her by the name he knew her by.

“We’re trying out our new toys and I thought getting Randall back was a good trial mission. This stuff is even better than Stark Industries weapons, don’t you think?” She aimed a Chitauri gun at Tony and blasted him. Steve jumped toward her. The second blast hit Iron Man just as Cap knocked her to the floor, throwing her weapon too far away for her to reach. 

Steve looked over at Tony. He was getting up. “I’m okay. Let’s find the warden.”

Steve grabbed her and held her with her arms behind her back. He shoved her ahead as they made their way to the warden’s office. It was locked but Tony zapped the lock and opened it. The warden was tied up on the floor and there were a couple of Masque’s men with him. When they started to raise their weapons, Tony zapped them as well and threw them across the room. Smacking against the wall put an end to their resistance. 

They found a set of cuffs in a drawer and put them on Madame Masque. 

“So where’s Dixon?” Tony asked her. 

The warden answered. “Still in his cell. She had barely gotten in here when you showed up. Even with her fancy weapons, she couldn’t get into the cells.”

Steve’s com buzzed and Maria Hill said, “We’ve landed with STRIKE. Where do you need us?”

“We’ve got Madame Masque. Head into the cell block and see if Dixon is in his cell… there may be some more of her men wandering about. They have Chitauri weapons, so be careful.”

They had the whole prison secured in another half an hour, the prisoners were on their way to a SHIELD holding facility and the weapons were being secured by Hill and the STRIKE team. 

Tony rode the Quinjet. Steve saw on his face that he was hurt worse than he let on. When they got back to Avengers Tower, Steve lingered close to Tony as the others disembarked. 

“Need a hand with your shirt?” Steve asked Tony with a smile, though he wasn’t kidding at all. 

“Yeah. I might.”

Steve followed him to his suite from the Quinjet pad. 

“Why don’t you go on to your place and get showered,” Tony said.

“I’ll help you then I’ll go.”

Tony divested himself of his Iron Man suit with little trouble but when he was out of his suit, his knees sort of gave way. Steve caught him and took him to the sofa. 

Stark’s face had a few bruises on it.

“Man, you take a beating in that suit, don’t you?”

“Sometimes. If you’ll help me with my damn shirt, I’ll get a shower.”

“You can barely stand. You’ll need some help.”

“You offering?” Tony asked Steve. “With the shower?”

“Uh, sure.” Steve’s heart sped up and he wasn’t even sure why. 

He helped Tony out of his shirt, noticing how he winced when Steve moved his left arm.

“Let’s go.” He reached for Tony to help him stand. 

They went to the bedroom and into the bath. Tony nodded toward him. “You’re going to need to get out of the suit, Cap.” 

Steve peeled the suit off while Tony slowly got the shower turned on. He kept his underwear on, figuring to just help Stark into the shower and wait to help him dry off and dress when he got out. 

Tony turned the hot water on and Steve helped him get in. 

Tony closed the sliding door and stood under the water. The door was frosted so Steve couldn’t see exactly what he was doing. 

“Steve? Can you give me a hand?”

Steve slid the door open. Tony stood with his back to Steve. 

“Can you do my back?” 

Steve stepped into the edge of the shower and poured body wash into his hand. He rubbed his hands together and soaped Tony’s back. 

Tony sighed. “Fuck. That feels good. You got good hands, Cap.” 

Steve was trying very hard not to notice that he was bathing Tony Stark. The thought of being naked with Stark had surely crossed his mind, but he didn’t want to think about that now. 

“Can you get my hair? I can’t seem to raise this damned left arm.” 

Steve looked for the shampoo and poured some in his hands then began to wash Tony’s hair. Tony made that happy sound again. 

“Can you not do that?” Steve said. 

Tony laughed and turned around. “Want to come all the way in? I’m done, I think.” 

Steve nodded and Tony stepped out to dry off. Steve tossed his underwear out of the shower and closed the door. 

Tony dried himself and watched Steve through the glass. He was still standing there with a towel around his middle when Steve opened the door to come out. 

“Why aren’t you resting?” Steve asked him, hastening to cover himself with a towel.

“Waiting for my chance to see Captain America naked.”

Steve blushed, then for a reason he couldn’t have told anyone later, he dropped the towel. 

Tony’s eyes raked his form from bottom to top. Their eyes met. 

“You’re fucking beautiful, Rogers. Michelangelo’s David has nothing on you. Anyone ever told you that?” 

Steve swallowed hard. “No. Never.” 

“Come here.” 

~~

Part 4 

“Are you sure you want to go there?” Steve asked him. 

“I think I am.” 

“You’re pretty beat up.” 

“You’ll be gentle,” Tony said.

“I haven’t had sex in over sixty-five years. Not sure you can count on that.” 

Tony’s voice changed, got lower, sexier. “I’m willing to take a chance on it.”

“I don’t want to hurt you. Maybe this should wait?” 

Tony made a wry face and finally nodded. “I can barely fucking walk here, so maybe you’re right. Wanna sleep over?”

Steve smiled and put his towel back on. “Not unless it’s on the sofa. I don’t trust either of us to behave.” 

Tony nodded, amazingly agreeable. “I’ll get your suit cleaned. You can borrow a pair of sweatpants to wear back to your place.” 

Steve nodded. 

“One thing,” Tony said. 

“What’s that?” 

Tony stepped close to Steve and kissed him, a quick peck on the lips. He opened a drawer in his bedroom and fished out a gray pair of sweatpants and tossed them to Steve. “Now off with you before I change my mind,” Tony told him. 

Steve hurried to his apartment and once he closed the door, he stood there for several moments with his back against the door. 

He’d not been with anyone since Peggy and before her, Bucky. The attraction to Stark had been instantaneous. He had also wanted to kill Stark on the helicarrier. It was so temping to take Tony up on his offer. He was still half hard from what happened in Tony’s suite. He moved over to sit on his sofa and closed his eyes. 

*

What was he going to do? If he followed his mind and his instincts, he’d stay away from Stark. If he followed his heart and his body… well, Stark would be his. 

His hand crept down his body. His cock was fully hard as he slipped the borrowed sweatpants down enough to free it. He’d avoided doing this since being thawed. There were so many distractions and so much else to learn that jerking off seemed a waste of time. Sometimes he felt lonely afterwards, as if it emphasized how alone he really was. 

But now, he needed to feel, needed to think about Stark, about how good it would feel to touch him, to – he spit in his hand to make it slicker and stroked slowly. He closed his eyes again, thinking about Stark’s chest, about the Arc Reactor, the scars, about how he’d love to trace those scars with his tongue, how he’d love to kiss and lick a wet trail down his belly, to taste his sex, to make him... 

“Tony!” he moaned the name when he came, spurting all over his hand and up onto this chest. 

*

Tony was in the much the same situation. 

He hadn’t meant to throw himself at Rogers, but found he really didn’t want to be alone. 

Rogers was big and strong and all the things Captain America was supposed to be. He’d loved Cap as a kid and now, here he was. Young, strong and certainly not any more immune to Tony than Tony was to him. 

Tony wanted him. 

He lay down, realizing how tired he was. His dick, however, didn’t seem to know that. It only wanted to think about Rogers. Tony’d seen the desire in his eyes. Rogers had wanted him. Maybe the next chance they got, he wouldn’t back out. 

He slipped his hand down to stroke himself. It was more comfort than lust, but he still came, thinking of Steve Rogers. He didn’t even clean up before he was asleep. 

*

Tony began working on his own suit and on making more suits. It was his response to the Chitauri attack, to his own fears of aliens attacking Earth. He became quite obsessed. 

Steve, on the other hand, was getting pressured by Fury to move back to DC. He liked New York fine. It was certainly more home than DC would ever be. He still wanted to find out what this thing with Stark was. They hadn’t gone any further than a few kisses and one frustrating make out session that might have gone somewhere if not for a mission. 

He was in his apartment when Maria Hill called him. “Fury wants you back here in DC this week. To stay.”

“What for? I’m fine here.”

“He is going to put you in with STRIKE and you’ll work out of DC. Romanov will be there as well.” 

“I’d rather be here with the Avengers.” 

“Steve, I’m just doing as I’m told. I think Fury is getting pressure to move you back here. It’s coming from the top. They are antsy since the battle of New York. None of them want to admit that they ordered the nuke dropped on New York and that the Avengers really saved New York from them as well as aliens.”

“No choice, huh?”

“Well, there might be but not without incident.”

“I’ll pack my bag, then. Does Natasha know already?” 

“She does and she’ll drive down with you. You can put your stuff in her car.”

Steve sighed. He really wanted to stay here with Stark. It seemed they might really have something beginning between them. He certainly thought it worth exploring. 

“Since I have no choice, I’ll agree.” 

He didn’t have a lot of possessions – a few more clothes because Natasha insisted that he dressed like a grandpa and she had taken him shopping for jeans and shirts. He had a couple of sketchbooks and his motorcycle. That and his leather jacket had been his indulgences. He’d used a little of his back pay to buy them and tucked the rest into the bank.

After quickly packing, he headed to Stark’s workshop. He wanted to tell Tony in person that SHIELD was moving him to Washington.

Tony was moving holographic images around when Steve walked into the workshop. He didn’t say anything, just watched. He liked watching Tony when he was wrapped up in whatever he was working on. He could almost see the thoughts racing through Stark’s brain as he switched from one screen to another at breakneck speed. 

“Hi ya, Cap. What can I do for you today?” He spoke without taking his eyes from his work. 

“I wanted to stop by and let you know that Fury has decided that I can’t stay here. He needs me and Nat in DC, so we’ll be heading down there tonight.” 

Tony stopped what he was doing and looked over at Steve. “That sucks. I kinda like having you here. It’s nice to have someone help me get my shirt off sometimes.” 

“Not much choice. Hill didn’t ask. She ordered, straight from Fury and the Council.”

“Come up to the penthouse for dinner before you go. I’ll have the chef make some steaks or something.” He sounded more casual than Steve suspected he was. 

“That would be nice.” 

“Come on up about 6 then?” 

Steve agreed. “I’ll leave you to your work. See you later.” He left the workshop. His heart was pounding with excitement. He certainly would like a chance to – to what? He’d cross that bridge when he came to it. 

Steve took the elevator up to Tony’s floor a couple of minutes before 6. He’d told Natasha that he was seeing Stark. She’d raised an eyebrow and told him to be careful. 

The elevator actually opened into the foyer of the suite. Tony heard him come in and came to the foyer to greet him. 

“Cap, come on in. Drink? Name it and I probably have it.” 

“Water will be fine.” 

Tony nodded. “You don’t mind if I have a scotch, do you?”

Steve laughed. “It’s your home, Tony.”

Tony smiled. “It is, isn’t it?” He went to the bar in the large open den and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge then poured himself a couple of fingers of single malt. He came around the bar and motioned to the big sofa in the middle of the floor. He handed Steve his water and motioned for him to sit. 

“So they want you where they can watch you, do they?” Tony said.

“It would appear so. I like it here in New York… not really home anymore, but closer to it than DC.”

“Damn SHIELD. I don’t trust them and with good reason. I’ve dealt with the DoD and SHIELD long enough to know you can’t trust anything they say. Watch ’em, Rogers.” 

Steve nodded. 

“That dinner should be delivered any time.” Stark seemed nervous. So was Steve. 

About that time, Stark’s chef entered the suite and set dinner on the table in the dining room. His assistants help get everything set up in a few minutes. The last touch was the chef pouring the wine. 

“This is it, Mr. Stark. Your dessert is in the fridge. Chocolate mousse. Will there be anything else?”

“Thanks, Jacques. We can take it from here.” 

Steve and Tony sat at the table. It was a simple meal of steak, potatoes, salad, and crusty bread. 

“So, do you get an apartment in DC?” 

“Natasha says yes. She’s been dealing with SHIELD a lot longer than I have.”

Tony laughed. “Did she tell you that SHIELD sent her to work for me? To spy on me?” 

Steve shook his head. “Not a word.”

“She showed up as a notary. I was boxing with Happy. Fuck, she was hot. Still is, for that matter. She had some papers for to me to sign and I sent her into the ring with Happy. She whipped his ass in no time flat. I hired her as an assistant.”

“She was a spy?” 

“Oh yeah. Straight from Fury.” 

“She’s been a good friend since we met.” 

“You and her?” Tony wiggled his fingers. 

“Oh, no. She’d knife me if I tried anything, don’t you think?” Steve said with a laugh. 

“What a way to die though.” 

Steve didn’t disagree. 

Dinner was delicious. Steve seemed to never get enough to eat, but the steak had been a quite large one and it actually satisfied his hunger for once. 

“Ready for dessert?” Tony asked. “Maybe we should wait a bit. I’m stuffed.” 

Steve nodded. “That’s fine.” He would do whatever Stark wanted. 

“Did I tell you I’m working on robotic suits that I can control? Or more accurately, that JARVIS can control?” Tony’s eyes lit up as they always did when he was talking tech. 

“You mentioned them.” 

“Let’s go to the workshop and I’ll show you.” 

They went to Stark’s workshop. He brought up the schematics for his robotic army. “Way better than just one Iron Man.” 

“Iron Man does okay.” 

“But think how much help more of him would have been against the Chitauri.” 

“Maybe. I still prefer the suit with you in it.”

Stark stopped what he was doing and looked at Steve. “Say that again, Capsicle.” 

“I like you in the suit.” Steve licked his lip. The air was suddenly charged. 

“I like you out of yours,” Tony said. 

Steve’s phone buzzed. “Shit! She’s ready to go. I – we – fuck!” 

“Just ignore it for now.” Tony held his hand out for the phone and Steve handed it to him. He switched it off and lay it on the table. He stood and looked at Steve. “Dessert here or in the penthouse?” 

Steve found himself quite breathless. “Here?” 

Tony pulled Steve into his arms. The kiss they shared wasn’t a quick kiss this time. Tony nibbled Steve’s lip then slipped his tongue inside when Steve parted his lips. Steve couldn’t stop the sound that slipped out, a soft moan. 

“JARVIS? Execute the privacy protocol for the workshop,” Tony said as he paused for a moment. 

“Done, sir. Will that be all?” 

“Turn off the cams until I tell you to turn them back on, too.” 

“Cameras are off, sir.” 

Tony turned back to Steve. “Now, where were we?” 

~~

Part 5

Steve kissed Tony this time, pulling Tony close and holding him tight against his own body. He lifted his head after the kiss and looked at Tony. “Is this what you want?”

“God yes. I’ve been wanting this for, uh, a while.”

There was a leather sofa against the wall. Steve pressed Tony toward the sofa. They were still kissing as they sat. 

“How long?” Steve asked. 

“How long what?” Tony was busy pulling Steve’s shirt tail out of his trousers. 

“How long have you wanted this?” 

“Since the Quinjet. But on the damn carrier – fuck, you made my skin burn.”

Steve nodded. The same was true of him. Stark certainly made him feel alive – something that simply had not happened since he’d been thawed, except when he was around Tony. 

Tony unbuttoned his shirt and pushed it open, looking at Steve’s broad chest. Steve reached for Stark’s t-shirt and Tony lifted his arms, letting Steve pull it off. Steve’s eyes were drawn automatically to the Arc Reactor, to the scarred skin around it, to its metal casing and its blue glow. He touched the Reactor with one finger then traced the casing around. He dipped his head and kissed the skin that puckered and knotted around it. He wasn’t sure that Tony could even feel it, but he needed to kiss it. 

“Jesus Christ, Cap,” Tony whispered, his voice low with arousal. “You’re gonna make me come my pants like a fourteen-year-old.” 

Steve let his tongue wander to a dark nipple and one hand slipped down Tony’s body to his erection. He could feel the heat through his trousers. He rubbed hard as he suckled the tiny bud of Tony’s nipple. 

“Fuck!” Tony hissed. “Holy fuck!” He humped Steve’s hand. 

Steve kissed his way up to Tony’s mouth again. The kiss was sloppy, Tony’s mouth was open and Steve tasted his lips, his tongue before ramming his own tongue deep into Tony’s mouth as he found a rhythm with his hand. 

Tony pulled back from the kiss, not far, just enough to speak. “Touch me. Take it out and touch me.” 

They both fumbled a little, trying to unzip Tony and get his cock out without pinching him with the zipper. Steve took his mouth in another hungry kiss as he wrapped his hand around Tony’s cock. Tony arched into his grip. Steve set his rhythm to match Tony, fucking his mouth with his tongue at the same time. 

Tony’s body strained as he fucked Steve’s hand, clinging to Steve with both arms now. Steve looked into those deep brown eyes. Tony was beautiful. 

“Sir,” JARVIS’s voice interrupted them. They pulled apart like guilty teens. 

“What is it?” Tony tried to sound normal. 

“Agent Hill is on the line. She says it’s urgent and she couldn’t reach Captain Rogers.” 

“Put her on.” 

“Stark?” 

“Agent Hill. What can we do for you?” 

“Is Rogers there?” 

“He is.” 

“There are reports of a – get this – giant octopus attacking ships in the North Sea near Iceland. Stark, you might want to take a look.” 

“Right now?” Tony asked. He was still in Steve’s hand and still quite erect. 

“Yes, now.”

“All right,” Tony sighed. “Send me the coordinates.” 

“Done.” 

As soon as Hill was gone, he looked at Steve. “Fuck. I’m sorry, man.” 

Steve let go and kissed him. “Sounds like I need to suit up, too.” 

Tony nodded. 

*

The octopus in the North Sea turned out to be a submarine designed to look like an octopus. The Nefaria organization was attempting to steal oil tankers and divert the oil to sell for themselves in third world countries. Madame Masque might have been in jail, but her criminal empire was as busy as ever. 

Tony flew over it and spoke to the others, in transit on a Quinjet. “It’s a sub. I’m going down for a closer look.” 

“Be careful, Stark,” Steve told him. 

He flew in closer and got noticed rather quickly. One of the tentacles was a weapon and shot some sort of missile at him. His shielding deflected it, but it did cause a disruption into his power for a moment. 

“Stark!” he heard Steve yell into the comm as he went into a freefall toward the sea. 

“JARVIS!” Tony said just as his power came back and he was able to avoid plunging into the sea or worse, into the ‘octopus’ beneath him. 

“I’m good, Cap,” Tony answered Steve. “Let’s get this thing!” 

A couple of military style gunships appeared along with the Quinjet carrying Steve and the other Avengers. 

Tony broadcast on all frequencies. “Surrender your vessel or we will destroy it.” 

The gun tentacle rose to shoot again and both gunships let loose on it. The arm was soon destroyed, though the ‘octopus’ was not yet entirely disabled. It began to lower itself beneath the surface. 

“Keep shooting,” Steve said to the ships. “We can’t let it get away.” 

The Quinjet went closer as the other planes shot at it. Steve jumped from the plane without a chute while the others used theirs. They landed on the body of the ship. In the top of the head was a hatch. Steve pulled it open as Iron Man joined him. 

They entered the sub and found only three men running the operation. Since they’d never thought they’d be caught, they were not prepared and basically gave up without much of a fight. Steve did punch all three men out before the other Avengers joined him and Tony. 

“We need to save this thing,” Tony said. “The tech is pretty amazing. It actually has an outside that looks and works like the skin of an octopus. And look at this panel – part of the tentacles are drills connected to hoses to make it easy to drill holes in tankers and steal their cargo.” 

“I’ll contact Fury. Maybe he has some way to move it,” Steve said. 

He was already talking with Hill on coms so he told her about Tony’s request. 

“We have orders to sink it, Cap,” Maria answered back.

They argued over it for several minutes until Fury came online as well. “If Stark can move the damn thing, he can bring it in.”

Tony looked at Steve. “Wanna ride an octopus?”

Steve laughed. “Why not?”

Steve, Tony and the Avengers managed to bring the ailing vessel into port in Iceland. SHIELD then transported it to one of their secret facilities somewhere on the eastern seaboard. 

Tony flew with the others in the Quinjet back to New York. He was beside Steve as Steve worked on his post mission report. 

“Come back to the penthouse after?” Tony said, leaning close to Steve. 

“I think Fury expects me in DC tomorrow.” 

“Tell Fury to go fuck himself,” Tony answered. “They can have you next week. I – we have some unfinished business, don’t we?”

*

Steve followed Tony into this private entrance into the penthouse. His heart was racing and his cock was already half hard. 

As soon as they were in the door, Tony turned to Steve. “Are you as horny as I am?” He grabbed Steve’s hand and rubbed it over his erection. “The Iron Man suit is not made for hard-ons.”

Steve kissed him, and followed him to the bedroom. 

Tony began to pull and tug at the fastenings on Steve’s suit. “This thing is hard to get off of you.” 

“It’s hard to take a piss in, too.” Steve laughed and yanked Tony’s black t-shirt over his head. Steve worked the zipper and snaps while Tony shoved his own trousers off. They went toward the bed as Steve began to actually toss bits of his suit off. 

Steve was down to boxers and socks by the time they reached the bed. He hopped on one foot, yanking his socks off then Tony grabbed his boxers and pulled them down. Steve kicked them out of the way and they landed on the bed in one another’s arms. 

Steve rolled over and pinned Tony under him. He kissed Tony yet again, sliding his tongue inside, moaning when Tony sucked his tongue deeper into his mouth. Steve ground his hips against Tony’s, rubbing their cocks together. Tony slipped his hand between them, taking both of their cocks in his hand. 

“I’ve wanted you since I met you,” Tony said to him as Steve began to kiss his jawline to his ear. 

“What do you want from me? Tell me.” 

“I want you – I don’t care how. Fuck me. I’ll fuck you. Suck me off, jerk me off. I just want you, Steve.” 

Tony’s words made him shiver. He wanted to be inside Tony, had from the first.  
“I want you to beg and moan. I want you to come saying my name. I want to fuck you until you forget your name,” he finally said as he moved back to kiss Tony’s mouth again.

“Do it. All of it,” Tony growled as he spread his legs so they could grind themselves together better. 

Steve began exploring, kissing his way down to Tony’s chest and the Arc Reactor. The light was bright but not blinding as he kissed the scarred skin around, letting his hands caress Tony lower down. He pushed Tony’s hands away and began to stroke Tony very slowly as he kissed his way down, rubbing his nose on the dark hair on Tony’s chest. He liked the way it tickled his face as he followed the trail down. 

Steve darted his tongue into Tony’s navel and grinned when Tony squirmed, but he didn’t stay there long, moving down farther to lick Tony’s cock, beginning at the base, all the way up the underside to his head. He teased the tiny bundle of tissue right under the head until Tony began to beg. 

“Please, suck it all the way in, baby.” 

Steve smiled around his mouthful of Tony at the endearment. 

“So good, Cap,” Tony whispered as Steve slid his mouth as far down as he could, tasting the salty, sweet precome as his tongue slid down. 

Tony put one hand on Steve’s head, tangling his fingers into his hair, alternately smoothing it and messing it up. He finally cupped the back of Steve’s head and thrust up into his mouth. Steve took a deep breath and let Tony’s cock push into the back of his throat. 

“Oh god!” Tony gasped. He kept fucking Steve’s mouth over and over. The tension was building quite fast and Steve felt Tony’s muscles go tight as he shoved himself down Steve’s throat one last time. Steve wrapped his hand around Tony, knowing that he couldn’t hold his breath long enough for Tony to finish coming. He swallowed several times before Tony stopped moving and stilled. 

“Tony, do you have anything? I -” Steve stopped, not sure what to say. He couldn’t wait much longer – he felt like he was going to combust. 

“Yeah.” Tony was still breathless, but he rolled over and opened a drawer in the night table and pulled out a bottle. 

“Do you need me to wear a condom?” Steve asked, knowing he’d do anything right now to be inside Tony, anything. 

“The lube is fine. You’re a supersoldier so I doubt you’ve got anything. I trust you, Cap.” 

Steve poured the lube into his hand and turned Tony to his side. He gently rubbed the lube on the outside first then slipped a wet finger inside, moving it slowly and quite gently, much more gently than he felt like doing. He curled his finger as he kissed Tony’s shoulder from behind. 

“Yes, Cap,” Tony encouraged him. “That’s it.” 

Steve added a second finger when the first one moved easily inside. Tony was pressing against Steve’s hand now. 

“Ready?” Steve asked him. “I don’t want to hurt you.” 

“Come on, Cap.”

Steve poured lube on his hand and slicked himself. He knew he was trembling when he got into position behind Tony. It had been a long time since he’d been with Peggy and Bucky. So long. He moved slowly, pressing a little bit at a time. 

“Hurry!” Tony begged. 

He did, sliding in all the way. He had forgotten – oh god - Tony felt so good. Hot and tight and so slick. 

“Tony!” Steve grunted as he grabbed Tony’s hips and rolled him onto his belly. He needed more leverage, he needed to bury his cock in Tony’s center. Tony opened his legs enough for Steve to get purchase with his knees on the bed. Steve put his hands on the bed on either side of Tony and began to drive himself as deep as he could. 

He put some of his weight on Tony and leaned down close to his ear. “So good,” he murmured, not even thinking about the words coming out of him. He’d never felt so needy, not even the first time with Bucky. He felt more than he knew how to say right at that moment, maybe more than he’d ever know how to say. “Love you,” slipped out as his control began to slip away.

*

Tony was meeting his long thrusts, bucking his ass up under Steve. He heard Steve’s words though they didn’t register for a few seconds. When they did, he knew he felt the same though he wasn’t sure he could say the words back yet. 

“Tony! I – oh god – Tony!” Steve slammed him into the bed. Tony felt Steve’s cock pulsing inside him, felt the warmth as Steve filled him with his seed. It was Tony’s turn to moan when Steve bit his shoulder, not hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough that Tony felt claimed, owned and he loved it. He moved his hand down and took Steve’s hand in his own, squeezing it. 

Tony needed to see him, to touch his face, look in those eyes. He wiggled enough that Steve slipped free and moved off of him to his right side. Tony turned over to face him and pulled him into an embrace. He kissed Steve and held his face in his hands. “It’s never been like that before. Not with anyone else,” he told Steve. 

Steve moved onto his back and pulled Tony close. “What on earth are we going to do about it?” he asked. 

“What we just did works for me right now,” Tony moved up and kissed Steve’s cheek.

Steve smiled at him and hugged him a little closer. “You already drive me crazy, Tony. I won’t be able to think of anything but you.”

“Poor Steve.” 

“We probably should get a shower and go find the others. We’ve still got paperwork for Fury.” 

“Fury can kiss my ass,” Tony said. 

Steve slid his hand down and grabbed Tony’s ass. “No, he can’t. He really can’t.”

Tony swung his legs over the side of the bed. “Come on. Let’s try out the shower together.” 

They did. 

~~

Part 6 

Even though Steve and Tony had something new and exciting happening between them now, the fact remained that Steve was being moved from New York to DC. Natasha was still there to drive him when morning came and there were no more emergencies. It would be now instead of next week, after all.

“I hate to tell you this, but we need to get on the road, Rogers,” she told him at the table in the big kitchen on the 87th floor, where their quarters were. 

“I know. My stuff is packed. I just wanted a chance to talk to Stark one more time before we left.”

She grinned. “You can sext each other every night.” 

Steve blushed. He’d never done anything like that, but the thought crossed his mind when he’d found out what it was. He’d enjoyed Stark, more than he’d thought he would and wanted more, even if was only a sexual relationship. It was more than he had had before. Besides, he wasn’t sure at this point what their relationship was. 

Natasha raised an eyebrow. “Anything I need to know?” 

“Um, no. I don’t think so.”

“Go see your sweetie then and let’s get down to DC and make Fury happy.”

Steve went to the R&D floor and Tony was there, deep in conversation with Bruce. “Let’s talk more about this. The idea that an AI can keep watch and make the world more secure is what I’m thinking about,” Tony said to Bruce then nodded as Steve walked in the door. “Cap. How’s it going?”

“I came down to tell you that Natasha and I are getting ready to head out to DC. Since we handled the last threat, I have no reason to delay moving any longer and Fury is getting pissy about it. It seems the head of SHIELD wants my ass close-by.”

“Walk with me up to the penthouse,” Tony said as he directed Steve toward the private elevator. 

As soon as the elevator doors closed, they were in one another’s arms. They kissed without speaking until the doors opened. They stepped into the penthouse. 

“I was hoping he’d let that go,” Tony told him. 

Steve shrugged. “I think it came from the World Security Council for me to be moved. If it’ll make them happy and get them to let us do our jobs, then I can’t argue with it.”

“I am going to go out to my place in California for a while. I have some research to do and New York can be distracting.” 

Steve laughed. “You mean me being too close can be distracting?” 

“Good god, yes, that too.” He kissed Steve again. They ended up on the sofa and their goodbye got rather physical as they ended up bringing one another a bit of satisfaction without getting too rumpled. Trousers were unzipped and hands and mouths did the work. 

After setting their clothes to rights and sharing a few more kisses, Steve got up. “I need to go. She’s going to come for me if I don’t.”

Tony laughed. “You don’t want Romanov mad at you.” 

Steve shook his head and grinned. “No, you don’t!” He walked over to the door and turned back. Tony followed and kissed him again. 

Steve let himself out. 

*

Tony stood against the closed door after Steve left. He wasn’t sure what to make of the last twenty-four hours or so. He’d wanted to make Steve his lover and he’d certainly gotten what he’d bargained for there, maybe more. Rogers was hot, both to look at and to be with. He was the perfect mix of sweetness and raw need. God, the man was something else! 

He went to the bathroom to clean up a little then it was back to the R&D floor. He needed to pack up DUM-E and U for travel. And call Pepper. She was in California, staying at the Malibu house, too. She’d said she had some new art for him to see. She loved buying expensive art for him to collect and it never lost its value, but he’d rather buy cars and make new machines, if truth be told. If it made Pepper happy, then he was all right with it.

“JARVIS? Inform Miss Potts that I will be arriving this evening.”

“Yes, sir. Will that be all?” 

“Add Rogers to my list.” 

“The list of those you monitor, sir?” 

“Yep, can’t be too safe, can we?” He’d keep an eye that Steve was all right while they were apart. The list was short so far – Rhodey, Happy and Pepper. There was a second list of those he monitored for another reason – Stane, Hammer, Stone. 

“No, sir.” 

“Let me know when the jet’s ready. I’m going to get a coffee in the kitchen.”

“Yes, sir,” JARVIS said and left him on his own. 

*

Steve and Natasha were on their way before Stark ever got to the kitchen.

“What’s really going on between you and Stark?” Natasha glanced over at him as she drove.

“Nothing. Why?” 

“Do I look stupid, Steve?” 

He laughed a little nervously. “No?”

“It’s all right. Just be careful. He is capricious and changeable. I’d rather not see either of you get hurt.” 

“We _are_ adults,” Steve told her, a little defensive. 

“Are you? Is he?” she asked. 

“Most of the time?” Steve answered a question with a question. 

“Just be careful.” 

“So why is he moving you to DC, too?” Steve changed the subject. 

“He plans to put us with the STRIKE team.”

“Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies.” 

“God, I hate acronyms…it must be a man thing,” she laughed. “Maybe there isn’t enough blood to actually remember the name of something since most of it seems to be south of your brains.” 

Steve laughed, too.

*

“Are they finally coming to DC?” Pierce asked Sitwell. 

“Both of them. Stark appears to be headed West, so maybe he’s out of the picture for a bit.”

Pierce smiled. “I’d love to see Cap when he sees the Asset.”

“You think he and Romanov will fall in line?” Sitwell seemed skeptical about this.

“Probably not, but it’ll be easy to get rid of them if we need to, with Rumlow and Rollins close by.”

Sitwell nodded his agreement as he always did.

*

Steve’s apartment was nice, not nearly as nice as his quarters in Stark Tower, but he grew up in a tenement in Brooklyn so even barracks were nicer in some ways than his original home. As soon as he got moved him, his neighbor, Kate, came by to say hello. She was a friendly girl and it was nice to have neighbors.

Natasha lived in Georgetown somewhere. She hadn’t invited him over yet, though she visited him now and again at his place. SHIELD had put him to work with Natasha, Brock Rumlow and the rest of the STRIKE team. They weren’t so bad, a little too gung-ho maybe, but special forces tended to be that way. The Howlies certainly were. They did everything together. 

He and Tony seldom actually talked on the phone, but they texted quite often. 

One night quite late, Steve’s phone pinged. He was instantly awake, thinking it was a mission. When he picked it up, it was Stark. 

“I miss you, Steve,” Tony said instead of hello. 

For a minute, Steve wasn’t even sure who it was. He was still half asleep. 

“Hi, Tony. It’s,” he looked at the clock by the bed, “3 am. Don’t you sleep?”

“Oops. Forgot the time difference. I couldn’t sleep. I miss you more than I thought I would.”

“I miss you, too.”

“How’s DC? Fury working you hard?” 

“Actually, he is. Natasha and I are part of the STRIKE team.” 

“I’ve met Rumlow before. Not crazy about him.”

“He’s a little intense,” Steve agreed. 

“I’ll be coming to DC next week for some talks about the clean energy initiative and I – maybe we could spend some time – well, and some nights together?” Tony sounded like he was nervous that Steve might say no. 

“There’s always the possibility of a mission, but yeah, I’d like to see you.”

“Take care, Cap. See you soon.” 

And he was gone. Steve looked at his phone like it could bring him back. He’d try to clear some time for Stark. He knew that Tony would probably be busy with DC parties and such, but being alone with Tony was all he needed anyway. It was hard to admit how much he _wanted_ Stark. Very hard. 

*

Tony was pinging off the walls by the time they landed in at Dulles. Pepper had booked them a penthouse suite near the Capitol. He wondered if she knew he planned on spending his nights and maybe even some days with Steve. 

“Pepper, I might have someone over in the evenings.” 

She looked at Tony and raised an eyebrow. “Captain Rogers? Maybe we should invite him to some of the events as well. I know the two of you want some private time, but he is a colleague as well. I’m sure he’d be more than welcome.” 

“You knew?” 

“Well, you’ve been mooning over him for months, Tony. Since you closed the penthouse down tight the night before he moved to DC, I kinda figured you were saying your goodbyes privately.”

“You’re not angry?”

“Tony, we’re business partners, not married. We love one another in a whole different way and I’m fine with that.”

Tony nodded. “I’ll ask him.”

He called Steve as they got in their car. Steve agreed to meet them in the lobby of the hotel. 

“Bring a bag. Oh, and a suit or a tux if you have one. You can be my date at some of these boring functions.”

Steve actually beat them to the hotel and was waiting in the lobby when Tony, Pepper, and Happy Hogan came in. Tony thought he’d never seen anyone look so good as Steve did in khakis and a blue checked shirt. How the hell could anyone look that good in dad clothes? 

Steve stood when he saw Tony. Tony made a beeline to him and hugged him. 

“I’d kiss you but we’d be on the cover of every paper, every magazine, and all over the internet by morning,” Tony told him. 

Steve picked up his bag and his suit, and followed Tony to the private elevator that led to the penthouse suite. The top of this hotel had two penthouse suites, Tony and Steve were in one and Pepper had the other one. Happy would stay on the next floor down (though unknown to Tony, he sometimes stayed over with Pepper). 

“You take one of the bedrooms and I’ll take the other. That way, we each have our own dressing space and such.” 

Steve nodded. 

“I hope you’ll, uh, sleep with me in my room though,” Tony said to him. 

Steve smiled, though Tony could tell he was a little nervous. “You don’t have to go to any of these ‘things’ with us. You can if you want. You also don’t have to sleep with me. I just hope you will.”

“I’ve missed you.” Steve tossed his stuff on the sofa and approached Tony. He pulled Tony into his arms and kissed him. 

They didn’t make it to either bedroom until much later.

*

Pepper was waiting downstairs for Tony and Steve. Happy was waiting with her. 

“I should have known he’d do this,” she told Happy. 

“They’re new to each other, Miss Potts,” he said, trying to soothe her nerves. These parties and the hearings were important to SI and to her. 

She looked at Happy with that same look she gave Tony sometimes. “Happy, I am Pepper. You’ve spent the night in my bed, for goodness sake. Don’t call me Miss Potts.” 

He nodded. “Here they come.” 

Steve and Tony got off the elevator. Both men wore black tuxedos with black ties. She noticed they’d been holding hands on the elevator and smiled as they walked up to her and Happy. 

“You two look great. Steve, you must know how to tie a tie because I usually have to tie Tony’s myself.”

Steve grinned and blushed. “I do.” 

“Are we ready?” Happy asked. 

At their nods, he took Pepper by the elbow and the other two men followed behind. Pepper wondered if Tony even knew about her and Happy. Probably not.

The dinner wasn’t actually boring. Their hosts were a German company who was looking to invest in clean energy in the US and SI was one of the companies they wanted to talk to. They were meeting in DC because the Department of Energy would have to sign off on any deal made between the two companies.

Everyone seemed quite enthralled to meet Iron Man and Captain America, and Pepper was thrilled that Steve was so charming. He also seemed to keep Tony reined in a little. 

There was dancing after dinner and Steve asked Pepper to dance. 

“He’s not as tough as he acts,” Pepper told him. “Don’t be careless with his heart, Steve.” 

“I – he – oh, Miss Potts, I have no intentions of hurting him. I care about him.”

She knew he had no idea how easily Tony was hurt.

~~

Part 7 

Life in DC was busy. There was always a disaster of some sort for Steve and the STRIKE team. He was glad he had Natasha on the team with him. He wasn’t sure he trusted Rumlow and the others, but Natasha he could trust. 

Rumlow made him uncomfortable sometimes. A lot of the time, actually. He could never decide if the man was coming on to him or not. It seemed that way to him, but he had to admit his radar for things like that was not always reliable. Rumlow certainly stared at Steve a lot. 

He decided to ask Natasha what she thought. They were driving out to Maryland to visit the Inner Harbor. On weekends, they got out of their apartments and did touristy things. As much as he’d traveled during the war, he’d seen very little of the country when he was punching Hitler from the stage. 

“Can I interest you in a date?” Natasha asked him.

“With you?” he asked. 

“No! There are a lot of nice girls at SHIELD. Some nice boys, too. I don’t think Stark would mind.”

“I’ll pass, but I did want to ask you a question.” 

She glanced over from the driver’s seat. “Yeah? What would that be? Where do babies come from? You can’t make them with Stark, Steve.” She grinned wickedly at him. 

He shook his head and laughed. “I do know where babies come from and Stark is not the only person I’ve ever – he’s not the only one.” 

“But the only one this century?” she asked.

“Maybe,” he answered. “Listen, I keep trying to decide if Rumlow is flirting with me. Am I nuts to think it?”

“Interested in him?” she raised an eyebrow. 

“Not really, but I get this feeling…”

“Not nuts. If he were any more obvious, he’d take his dick out and wave it at you.” 

“Shit.”

A few weeks later, they were on the Lemurian Star and Rumlow was still at it. There were a few times that Steve worried he was going to try cop a feel or kiss him, but they made it back without too much stress. Or any passes from Rumlow. 

On the way home, Natasha asked him about his new friend, a guy he was chatting with on the mall when she’d picked him up before the mission. 

“So is this a – what?” she asked. 

“Sam jogs every morning and I pass him, over and over. We finally just got to talking and found out he’s a vet, a nice guy, too. Maybe you and he -”

“I am _not_ looking for a boyfriend or even a date.”

Steve grinned at her. “Serves you right. I’m not either.”

“You’ve got Rumlow,” she joked. 

The whole world went sideways when he found Nick Fury in his apartment with a data stick and a warning not to trust anyone. Just a few days before, right after the Lemurian Star mission, Fury had horrified him with information about Project Insight, an algorithm to assess threats. When shots rang out and he chased Fury’s assailant, he saw a man with abilities much like his own. As if that wasn’t enough, there was something about him, something oddly familiar. 

The nice girl, Kate, who he’d met in his building, turned out to be a spy for SHIELD, keeping an eye on him. She helped him get help for Fury after he tried to catch the attacker. 

At the hospital, he saw Natasha and found himself wondering if he could trust her. He didn’t have much time to think about it before Fury died and Rumlow came for him, telling him Pierce wanted to see him. He’d talked to Natasha and found out the man who attacked Fury was an Asset called the Winter Soldier. He hid the data stick in a candy machine and went with the STRIKE team. 

The meeting with Pierce went the way he thought it would. When he got on the elevator, he knew what was coming. Maybe he should have fucked Rumlow, but he wasn’t sure it would have made any difference. Rumlow did tell him it wasn’t personal. In the end, when he’d knocked all the others out, he knocked Rumlow out, too, then got the hell out of there. 

He and Natasha had crashed at Sam’s after finding out they’d both been working for fucking HYDRA all this time. They’d had some heartfelt conversation, really heartfelt. He only realized how upset Natasha was after she told him. She kept things to herself most of the time. 

He was glad that Sam threw in with them when they sent him to find Sitwell to discover just what that damned algorithm really did. Sam was a good guy. Steve tried to warn him away, but he seemed happy to put himself in danger for Steve and Natasha. 

And there _he_ was, the man who shot Fury and was trying to kill them. He nabbed Sitwell out of the car and tossed him aside like a ragdoll, then attacked them. Steve ended up fighting him hand to hand. His mask came off during the fight and Steve was paralyzed by what he saw. 

Bucky. His Bucky. The Winter Soldier was Bucky Barnes. 

*

The soldier had no idea exactly who he was, but the man he’d fought, the man he’d saved – he knew that man. Yet he couldn’t remember who he was. The man said his name was Steve. And that his name was Bucky, whoever that was. 

His masters were gone. Dead. 

He had no intention of being caught and used again. He needed to find out who he was and who the blond man was. He felt – something. He’d wanted to explore it but his programming wouldn’t allow it. Until now. He had no more orders to follow. He had no masters left to follow either. 

He wandered around, ending up at the Smithsonian. He saw the Captain America exhibit. Steve Rogers and James Barnes were friends. The man he fought was Steve Rogers. And he was James Barnes… Bucky Barnes. 

Odd things floated through his head. A small blond man with Steve’s face… a Ferris wheel…kissing this Steve… uniforms… a man with a red skull for a face… 

“Are you all right?” a woman asked him. 

He shook his head. “I’m fine. Just lost in thought.” 

“You be careful. You never know what kind of person you meet.” 

And she was gone. 

*

Tony answered his phone. It was Natasha. 

“You’ve seen the news?” she asked him. 

“Yes. HYDRA? Fury wasn’t part of that?” 

“No and he isn’t dead, but that’s classified. I wanted to tell you that the operative that HYDRA had been using as an assassin was Barnes and he and Steve fought on the helicarrier and Steve got shot and dumped in the Potomac.”

“Jesus, Nat! Couldn’t you have led with that? Is Steve – oh shit, is he all right?” His chest hurt and the room shifted beneath him. 

“He’s fine. They had to dig the bullets out. Sam is with him.”

“Sam?” Tony hadn’t talked to Steve in a few days. 

“He’s a new friend and he joined us in this thing. He gave Steve and myself somewhere to hide after they blew up Camp Lehigh.”

“I’m coming as soon as I can.” 

True to his word, Tony was there by the end of the day. Sam was still sitting with Steve when he came barreling into the room. Sam stood. Tony looked him over and stuck out his hand. 

“Tony Stark. How is he?” 

Sam shook his hand and as he started to speak, Steve spoke instead. “I’m fine, Tony.” 

Tony rushed to the bed. “Nat scared the shit out of me when she called.” 

“She’s scary like that,” Steve laughed then winced. 

Tony took his hands and held them. 

“I saw him, Tony.”

“Him?” 

“Bucky. I saw Bucky. He’s the Winter Soldier. Pierce was using him as an assassin.”

“Barnes? He’s as old as you?”

“And he’s the same age he was in 1945.”

“Sounds like someone discovered the serum.” 

“Schmidt experimented on him before I found him.” 

Tony moved closer and would have kissed Steve if Sam hadn’t been watching like a guard dog. “You scared me, Cap.” 

“No more than you scared me when you disappeared,” Steve reminded him of his own recent misadventure in Tennessee. 

Tony had disappeared for several days and no one had known where he was. He had been fighting Aldritch Killian and his monstrous Extremis serum when he’d ended up with a broken suit in Tennessee, of all places. 

Tony managed to look a little embarrassed. “Sorry about that. It was – well, it just happened.” 

“Doesn’t matter. You’re here.” 

*

After Steve recovered, he called Natasha. “I know you blew open SHIELD’s files when it fell. Is there anything about Bucky in there?”

“I haven’t seen anything yet. I might still have some contacts in _Kyiv_ who may know something. I’ll let you know.” 

In a few days, they met Fury at his grave and Natasha gave him a folder with all she had found on the Winter Soldier. “You might not want to pull on that thread,” she said as she gave it to him. 

Sam said he would go with Steve to search for the Winter Soldier. 

“I gotta go to New York first,” Steve told him.

Sam grinned, “Stark?” 

Steve nodded. 

Tony had only been able to stay a few days and Steve wanted a chance to talk to him and, well, a chance to make love with him again, before he set out to find Bucky. He needed to tie up that loose end if he could, then he could decide where his future lay. 

They drove up in Sam’s car. 

“So Stark is your what, boyfriend?” Sam asked. 

Steve shrugged. “We don’t seem to know what we are.” 

“That man is nuts about you, Cap. I saw the way he looked at you when he walked in the hospital room.”

“Really? I’m never sure.”

Sam laughed. “I’m sure, man. I’ll make myself scarce once we get there.” 

“I’m sure we can behave in front of other people.” 

Sam laughed again. “Like I said, I saw the way he looked at you.” 

~~

Part 8 

Tony had JARVIS sifting through the files that Natasha had freed to the world when SHIELD fell. 

“Sir, I have found video from 1991,” JARVIS told him. 

“Of what?”

“It is of a very disturbing nature, sir. It is the death of your parents.”

All the blood drained from Tony’s face. His body went cold. “Play it.”

“But sir. I can give you a summary.”

“I know what happened, damn it!” Tony shouted. “Play it.”

He watched in horror as James Barnes killed his mother and father. Did Steve know this? Had he kept it from him? 

“Stop it!” 

The screen went blank. 

*

Since Sam drove him to see Stark, Steve began living in Avengers Tower. He had his own place, but spent a lot of time in Tony’s penthouse. He also spent some of his time looking through SHIELD files. He had given JARVIS a list of names to scan for. James Barnes was one of them. 

“Captain Rogers, here is a list of files that matches your search parameters,” JARVIS said to him while he was on his computer. 

The list appeared on his tablet. He saw one from December 16, 1991 and a chill ran down his spine. 

“Has Tony seen this one?” Steve asked.

“I’m afraid he has, sir.” 

“Show me.” 

Steve sat in horrified silence as his best friend killed a man who they’d both considered a friend and his wife, Howard and Maria Stark. 

He looked through the files to the Winter Soldier program. The details were sparse but Bucky had not died when he’d gone into the ice. The serum in his veins had saved him just like it had Steve. He’d lost his arm, but was otherwise healthy. 

The Soviets found him and used some of their experimental mind control methods to make him into the Winter Soldier. Since he was, in essence, a mindless killing machine, they kept him on ice until they needed him. It just so happened that the Soviet scientists were also HYDRA and worked with HYDRA in the US and Europe as well. He had come under the control of Alexander Pierce when they’d needed him. 

He had murdered Howard Stark because Stark had several vials of the serum in his car. The Winter Soldier had been tasked with getting the serum and getting rid of Stark. He did so quite efficiently and made it look like an accident.

Tears fell down Steve’s face as he watched again, watched Bucky mercilessly kill Maria Stark. 

“Is he in the workshop?” Steve asked JARVIS. 

“He is, sir. He is alone.” 

Steve took a deep breath and headed to Tony’s workshop. 

He didn’t knock. No one did, usually. 

“Tony, I need to talk to you.” Steve hoped his face didn’t look like he’d been crying. Tony didn’t need to see that. 

“I saw it,” was all he said without looking up.

“How -”

“I told JARVIS to let me know if anyone accessed the files.” 

“I wanted to talk to you before you thought I was keeping anything from you.”

Tony looked away. “I wanted to kill him, to find him and kill him. He killed my mother, for God’s sake.” His voice hitched at the end of the sentence. 

“I know. It wasn’t my friend. It was the creature that attacked Fury and tried to kill me.”

“Do you think your friend is still in there, after all these years?” 

Steve bit his lip, then spoke. “I don’t know, but I do know that I have to find out. I have to find him and see if I can help him.”

“He’s in the wind.” 

“He’s searching for answers. He knew me for a moment and he had to have been the one who pulled me out of the Potomac.”

“I don’t know if I can forgive him,” Tony said. 

“That’s up to you. It doesn’t change how much I – how I feel about you.” 

Tony’s shoulders slumped a little and he put down what he was doing and went to Steve. He put his arms around him and buried his face in Steve’s shoulder. And he cried. 

“I’m so sorry, Tony. Sorry for your loss and sorry for making it worse.” Steve said as he gently patted Tony’s back and let him cry. 

“I – now I know what happened. It’s – seeing it was unbearable, but I know now. And your Bucky, he – I hate him right now, but it wasn’t his fault. I read the other information. If – when you find him, I’ll try to come to terms with it all.” 

*

Tony needed the world to be safe. 

After seeing what had happened to his mother and father, he needed it even more than before. To this end, he and Bruce began to work on what they called the Ultron project. They had recovered Loki’s scepter in a raid on Von Strucker’s lab in Sokovia and they thought to put the stone in the scepter to good use. 

Tony decided to throw a party to celebrate their successes. Everyone came, even Maria Hill. There was food and drink. They all even took a turn at lifting Thor’s hammer. Steve stole a few kisses from Tony when they thought no one was looking. 

Then Ultron appeared. Tony’s safe world went to hell in a handbasket really quickly as the AI robot sought to make himself a real being to make the earth safe and peaceful by ridding it of the life that was causing all the problems: human life. 

The following few days were harrowing as they battled to save Novi Grad in Sokovia, more importantly, the people of Novi Grad. They also had to defeat Ultron before he finished his plans. 

The battle was brutal and took its toll on them all. They lost JARVIS, but gained Vision, an android made of vibranium who was a blend of JARVIS and Ultron. He was powered, more or less, by the Mindstone, the stone out of Loki’s scepter. 

They also brought home the Maximoff twins – Pietro and Wanda. The two teens were enhanced by experiments that Von Strucker had done with the scepter. At first, they had worked for HYDRA because they wanted to punish Tony Stark for the weapons that killed their parents, but they’d soon realized that Ultron meant to destroy all life and had agreed to come with the Avengers back to the US. Barton had taken them under his wing and both of them seemed to be doing well so far. 

The Avengers had moved into an old Stark Industries facility in upstate New York that Tony had made into a state-of-the-art training facility, complete with quarters for them all and even a landing field. 

Steve and Tony were in Tony’s quarters. “Are you sure you won’t stay?” Steve asked as he watched Tony pack.

“I need to get away for a few days. I’ll be back, but I’m going to back off for a bit. The – I – Sokovia was a disaster. I have a conference to go to anyway.” 

Steve crossed the room and pulled Tony close. “The things we do have consequences. We knew that going in.”

“I thought I could make the world safer.”

“A safe world is a scary world,” Steve said as he backed Tony toward the bed. 

“Is it?” Tony asked just before Steve kissed him. “The plane is going to have to wait on me, isn’t it?” He allowed himself to be pushed onto the bed. 

“Yep.”

They didn’t talk about the Avengers anymore for a good while. 

*

Helmut Zemo combed through the thousands of SHIELD files that Natasha had made available. He searched for information on Stark and Rogers. Those were the two he blamed for the death of his family. It never occurred to him that had he not been out killing innocent citizens as a member of EKO Scorpion, he might have saved his family himself. In his mind, he decided that Stark and Rogers must pay. 

He cross referenced the two men and found that Stark’s father had known Rogers during WWII and that Roger’s friend, Barnes, was quite possibly the HYDRA asset he’d heard about from Von Strucker: the Winter Soldier. 

He smiled to himself. This would warrant a closer look. 

*

Thaddeus Ross hated Bruce Banner and he’d come to hate Tony Stark, too. Both men he considered a menace to the safety of the world. But the one he considered the biggest threat was Steve Rogers. He could deal with Banner. When he wasn’t the Hulk, Bruce was a wimp and they all knew it. Stark was a smartass, but he’d cave if he lost too much money. Rogers, though, was another story. He was sure that he was right and fought on the side of right. He was a damned zealot and what the hell could you do with a zealot? 

“Stark, we need to talk. The UN and the World Security Council have a proposition for your ‘enhanced’ friends,” Ross said over the phone to Stark. He made the word enhanced sound like an insult. 

“I’m busy, Secretary Ross,” Stark told, putting as much disdain in the word ‘secretary’ as Ross had ‘enhanced’. 

“Two things. Are you aware that you _could_ be held financially responsible for the damages your friends do? And have you ever heard of the Raft?” 

Tony hung up on Ross. 

That would not be the end of the conversation, thought Ross, with a smile. Not by a long shot. 

*

Steve and Natasha began training their new crop of Avengers: Sam Wilson, James Rhodes, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, and Vision. All had a lot to add to the group, either with enhancements or with equipment. 

“I think Wanda has a crush on Vision,” Natasha said to Steve as they talked about their day, something they did every evening.

“Isn’t that weird?” 

Natasha howled with laughter. “Really? A hundred-year-old man, a former Russian spy, a man in an iron suit, a man with wings, a boy who is so fast you can’t see him running, a girl witch and an android and you think Wanda and Vision is the weirdest part?”

“I didn’t say that. But now that you mention it, we’re all a bunch of misfits, aren’t we?” 

She nodded. “’Fraid so, Cap.”

“Has Clint’s kid arrived yet?”

“Oh yeah, he’s ugly, but he looks like Clint so what do you expect?” She showed a photo of Barton’s new little son on her phone. “They did name him Nathaniel.”

Steve grinned. “After you?”

She shrugged, the shrug that Steve knew really meant that what she was talking about was important. “So they say.” 

They sat in silence for a moment or two, then Natasha asked him, “So how is your sweetheart?” 

Steve laughed. He and Tony were a badly kept secret. The team all knew, but no one outside did, other than Miss Potts, but she knew everything. Everything. “He’s coming back in a couple of days.”

She grinned. “You two are kinda cute together, you know. Have there been any leads on Barnes?”

“There are some reports of him in Europe though how he got there, I have no idea. If things ever calm down, I thought I’d check it out.” 

“You’ll have to choose someday. You know that, don’t you?” she asked him. “He killed the Starks. What will Tony do with that?”

“He knows.” 

“What did he say?”

“That he didn’t know if he could forgive Bucky.” 

She nodded. “So what will you do?” 

“Wait and see how it plays out, I guess.” 

~~

Part 9 

Things seldom go as planned. What happened next was a prime example of that. 

The new Avengers, under Steve and Natasha, worked hard to become as good as the original Avengers were. The problem was that public opinion, fueled by men like Thaddeus Ross, was not always on their side. The normal citizen saw all the destruction that the Avengers had caused and became angry. They did not understand that they’d all faced a threat much greater than they’d understood. 

Steve Rogers understood the threat. He had fought the Nazis and had even fought a group that made the Nazi look mild when he came up against Johann Schmidt and HYDRA. That he had to fight HYDRA again in the midst of threats from alien invasions only convinced him that the Avengers _must_ be allowed to continue their fight. 

They got called to Lagos, Nigeria. His old teammate, Brock Rumlow, or as he was known now, Crossbones, was reportedly in the city to steal a biological weapon being studied there. They went – Steve, Sam, Natasha, Wanda and Pietro. Instead of allowing Rumlow to kill Steve in a suicide bombing, Wanda used her magic to save Steve, with tragic results. An office building with relief workers from Wakanda was hit by the blast and several were killed. 

At the same time, Tony Stark was speaking at MIT when a woman confronted him. Her son had been killed during the destruction of Sokovia. The woman’s story moved Tony and he felt even more guilt than he was already feeling. 

Wanda was devastated over what she had done when they get home to New York. Steve tried to comfort her, as did Pietro. 

Steve hadn’t talked to Tony since they got back or even in the last week, he realized when Vision walked through a wall to announce that Stark had arrived. 

“He’s brought a guest,” Vision told Steve. 

“Oh? Do we know who it is?” Steve asked him. 

“The Secretary of State.”

Shit! That had to be bad. Ross had been clamoring for several years to control the Avengers and he had a hard on over Stark, for some reason. Steve got up from where he sat on Wanda’s bed and they all went to the conference room where an agitated Tony and always smug Thaddeus Ross waited for them. 

Steve locked eyes with Tony, who actually looked away. 

Ross started talking. “Five years ago, I had a heart attack. I dropped right in the middle of my backswing. Turned out it was the best round of my life, because after 13 hours of surgery and a triple bypass, I found something 40 years in the Army had never taught me: perspective. The world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt. You have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives, but while a great many people see you as heroes, there are some who would prefer the word ‘vigilantes’.”

He went on to call them dangerous and then showed them pictures of the devastation from New York, Sokovia, and Lagos before Steve called a halt to it. Steve had been watching Tony and realized that Tony wasn’t defending them. What the hell? 

Ross went on to tell them that 117 countries had come up with a document that made them subject to approval of a United Nations panel before they could act and that they all must sign it. He called it the Sokovia Accords. 

Rage shot through Steve. After all he’d been through with SHIELD, he wasn’t about to trust any group of politicians to decide who and what was worth saving. Ross also informed them that they would be forced to retire, if they didn’t sign. The signing would be in Vienna in four days. 

Steve looked at Tony, who had still not said shit. 

Ross left them a copy of the huge document and later, they all began looking at it. Steve already knew that he wasn’t going to sign it. 

And he knew that Tony was. He also knew why. 

Guilt.

Tony felt guilty about the man whose mother he’d met at MIT, guilty about being the one who’d built weapons that started a lot of the threats they’d had to act against. He got that. He did. But what they wanted was a force of superheroes to act as the UN’s personal mercenaries. And Steve was having none of it. 

Tony said, “There's no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check! Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, if we're boundary-less, we're no better than the bad guys.”

While they argued, Steve’s phone pinged. 

_'She's gone. In her sleep.'_

Peggy Carter was dead. He’d visited her several times, sitting by her bedside and fighting back tears as she talked to him. Sometimes she was quite lucid and knew what year it was and all that happened. Sometimes she thought they were back in the war, still young and in love. 

He told the others he had to go and started out of the compound. Sam followed him. 

“Where are we going?” he asked Steve. Sam had been a loyal and devoted friend since they’d met. He had gladly given up his work at the VA to join the Avengers and to help Steve search for Bucky. 

“London. Peggy died.” 

Sam touched his arm. “I’m sorry, man. I’ll go with you.” 

Steve wanted to tell him to stay home, to go to Vienna with the others and sign the Accords, but he nodded instead. He would have loved Tony to comfort him right now, but that wasn’t going to happen. Tony had barely spoken to him since he’d gotten back. 

He made arrangements for him and Sam to fly to London. 

*

Tony was angry and scared. He understood Steve, but he knew he might lose him over this. He felt so terrible for the losses, felt like they were his fault. He would go to Vienna to sign the Accords, but he knew that once Steve had buried his Peggy, he would not be joining them. 

*

Zemo got the information – the snippet of video that he believed only he had – the video of James Barnes killing Howard and Maria Stark. He also had the red book, the book with the code words to activate the Winter Soldier. He was ready to destroy the Avengers for what they had done to him. 

*

The signing ceremonies were about to begin in Vienna. Tony, Natasha and Rhodes were there. They had left Vision at Avengers Headquarters guarding Wanda and Pietro. Steve and Sam were still in London talking to Sharon Carter, Peggy’s niece and Steve’s neighbor from DC. He hadn’t known that she was Peggy’s niece until he saw her speaking at the funeral. 

She said something that sealed his resolve to do what he thought was right. “I asked her once how she managed to master diplomacy and espionage in a time when no one wanted to see a woman succeed at either. And she said, compromise where you can. But where you can't, don't. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye and say ‘No, you move.’”

*

The man who planted the bomb that killed the King of Wakanda looked like James Barnes and the news went out all over the world. Sharon helped Steve and Sam get to Vienna as quickly as possible. She also gave them what intel she had on where Barnes was. 

Steve called Natasha. “I’m going to find him and bring him in.”

“Steve, you don’t want to do that. They’re going to come after you.”

“They will kill Bucky if I let Ross handle it,” he told her. 

“Tony won’t let Ross kill him.” 

Steve as quiet for a moment. “Tony might be more danger to him than anyone.” He hung up and he and Sam headed for the last known location of James Barnes. 

They had no idea they were being followed. 

Yet. 

*

Bucky saw the paper and knew they were after him. He still wasn’t sure who he was though he knew what the exhibit at the Smithsonian said. He knew that the other man was Steve and he now knew that the small blond man he remembered was Steve, too. 

There were bits and pieces of memories floating through his head these days and he wasn’t sure which ones were his and which ones were crap his HYDRA masters had put in his head. 

He had some idea that Steve meant a lot to him, but he wasn’t sure why. 

He also remembered other things. Killing people, lots of people. Pain. Cold. And one fairly clear memory. There were more like him. He couldn’t remember why he knew that, but he did.

*

“You and Romanov go get Rogers!” Ross told Tony. “This is your fault.” 

“I’ll do it, but I’ll do it my way. You stay the hell out of it.” 

He knew that Natasha could help him track Steve down. He needed to fix things with Steve. He needed to find Barnes and look him in the eye. He called Natasha. 

“I need to find Steve.” 

*

Steve and Sam weren’t the only ones hunting Bucky. The Germans were hot on his trail as well as Interpol. Steve got to him first. He and Sam found the address of the small apartment where Bucky apparently lived. Sam went up high to lookout while Steve went into the shabby little place. 

“You’re about to have company. Special Forces, I’d say,” Sam told him over his com. 

At the same time, he felt eyes on him and turned around slowly. Bucky was behind him. His heart was pounding. “Do you know me?”

“You’re Steve. I read about you in a museum.”

Steve wanted to embrace him, to kiss the stuffing out of him. Here was his Bucky! Sam was yelling at him over coms. 

“I know you're nervous. And you have plenty of reason to be. But you're lying.” 

“I wasn't in Vienna. I don't do that anymore,” Bucky told him. 

He heard Sam in his ear. “They're entering the building.”

He turned to Bucky. “Well, the people who think you did are coming here now. And they're not planning on taking you alive.”

They were coming in and running up the stairs. On the roof, Sam was compromised. 

“This doesn't have end in a fight, Buck,” Steve pleaded with him. 

“It always ends in a fight.” 

Steve needed to ask him one more question. “You pulled me from the river. Why?”

Bucky shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do,” Steve answered and there was no more time to talk. 

Sam was yelling, “Breach, breach, breach.” 

Bucky and Steve had to fight the Germans, but Steve spent at least half of the time trying to keep Bucky from killing the cops who keep coming at him. Finally, they made it out of the building only to be stopped by the person who’d been following Steve unnoticed – the Black Panther, King T’Challa from Wakanda. He was after Bucky and they managed to fight their way to the ground. German Special Forces were shooting at Bucky from a helicopter and the Panther was chasing him as well as Steve chasing both of _them_. 

The chase went on and on until they were finally cornered and James Rhodes landed. “Cap, you are a criminal.”

At this point, they all let themselves be taken in. 

Tony was waiting. 

*

Zemo knew this was his chance. He had studied the psychologist at the facility where they took Barnes and the rest. He’d killed the man and was ready to take his place when they brought Barnes in. Things were falling into place faster than he’d anticipated, but that mattered little to him as long as he destroyed the Avengers, especially Stark. 

~~

Part 10

They were hauled in in an armored paddy wagon, except for Bucky. He was carried in a special armored vehicle in manacles and chains. 

Steve was so angry that he couldn’t even speak. 

Natasha was the first person he met. “This is what happens when you make things worse,” she told him.

“He’s alive,” he told her. “What will they do with him?”

A man he didn’t know said, “A psych eval. They should do one on you, too.” 

Tony came in. He was angry, but Steve wasn’t sure who he was angry at. They sat down to talk. 

“Are you sure that you won’t sign the Accords?” Tony asks him. “Nothing’s happened that can’t be undone.” 

“I still can’t sign. I won’t.” 

They argued and bickered a little longer but, in the end, they were at a stalemate. 

*

Zemo sat down with Bucky and introduced himself and after a few minutes, he began reciting the words that activated the Winter Soldier. Bucky knew and tried to stop him, but he kept talking and talking. 

Steve, in the other room, talking to Sharon Carter, realized that something was off. The power went off and Steve and Sam ran to the chamber where Bucky was supposed to be. There was an explosion as well. There was a man lying on the floor murmuring “Help! Help me.” 

Steve picked him up and slammed him against the wall. “What do you want?” 

“To see an empire fall.”

Steve dropped him and went to look for Bucky, who Sam had tried to fight. He’d made his way to a helicopter and was trying to fly away. Steve grabbed it from the ground. It took all of his superhuman strength but he did stop the chopper from leaving. The chopper ended up crashing in the river and Steve dragged Bucky out of the water. 

Sam secured the captured Barnes in a vise by his metal arm in a hangar. He took Steve to him. 

Relief flooded through Steve when Bucky opened his eyes. He’d take any Bucky he could get just not to lose him. 

“Steve,” Bucky said. 

“Which Bucky am I talking to?”

“Your mom’s name was Sarah,” and he grinned, “and you used to wear newspaper in your shoes.” 

It was him! “You can’t read about that in a museum.”

“Just like that? We’re supposed to be cool?” Sam was angry. This man had hurt Steve! 

Bucky sighed and asked, “What did I do?” 

“Enough.”

“Damn. I was afraid of this. Everything HYDRA put in me is still there. All he had to do was say those damn trigger words and the Winter Soldier was back.” 

“Who was he?” Steve asked him. He had to know, right?

“Don’t know.” 

Damn! 

“Give me something! He killed people just to get to you. What did he want?”

“He asked me about Siberia. Where they kept me. He wanted to know the exact location.”

“Why would he want to know that?” Steve asked. 

“Because I’m not the only Winter Soldier.” 

Steve gaped at him. 

“There were five more. Four men and a woman. They were given the serum that I, that the Winter Soldier, took when I killed the Starks.” 

“Who were they?” Steve asked though he was pretty sure of the answer he was going to get. 

“HYDRA’s most elite death squad members.” 

“Were they as bad as you?” 

“Worse.” 

“He told me he wanted to see an empire fall,” Steve said, remembering how odd that statement seemed when the doctor had said it to him. 

“With these guys, he could do it. They speak 30 languages, can hide in plain sight, infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize. They can take a whole country down in one night. You'd never see them coming.”

“Fuck!”

“What he said,” Sam agreed. 

“We’re going to need some help.”

*

Thaddeus Ross was being his normal charming self. He wanted to send a Special Ops team after Steve, Sam and Barnes. He didn’t seem to get that no Special Ops team stood a chance against two supersoldiers, not to mention their aerial support in Wilson. 

“Let me bring them in, Ross.” 

“You’ve got 36 hours.” 

After Ross left, Tony turned to Natasha. “How are we going to do this?” 

“Berlin, start in Berlin.”

*

On the way to Berlin, a message came in from the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre. 

A doctor named Theo Broussard had been sent to evaluate Barnes. His body was found in a hotel room. There was video of him talking to a man that facial recognition had identified as Helmut Zemo, former Sokovian military, former kill squad leader. They found a wig and mask that looked just like Bucky as well. 

“Damn! We need to get to them,” Tony told Natasha. 

By the time they landed, Steve and Bucky were on their way to Siberia in a stolen Quinjet. 

Tony turned to Natasha. “We part here. Iron Man is headed for Siberia. You can help by tracking that damned Quinjet and sending me the coordinates.” 

“Stark, two things,” she said as she stepped close to Tony. 

“Yeah?” 

“Be careful. And don’t hurt Steve or Bucky.” 

“Will do.” He kissed her cheek, flipped his Iron Man visor and was gone.

*

T’Challa had followed the Quinjet in his own little Wakandan stealth plane. 

He landed far enough away from Rogers and Barnes that they never saw him. 

He waited outside the compound. 

*

Before they disembarked from the plane, Steve pulled Bucky close and hugged him. “How much do you remember, Buck?”

Bucky looked into his eyes and smiled. “I remember it all, Stevie, every kiss, every touch.” 

Steve kissed him, a long hungry kiss. He poured all his longing and all his love into the kiss. “I’ve missed you so much, Buck.” 

“I’d say I missed you, too, but I haven’t been myself,” Bucky returned. 

Steve groaned. “That one’s bad!”

Bucky shrugged. “Let’s go stop this monster from loosing hell on the world.” 

Steve nodded and they headed into the facility. If Bucky felt anything at returning there, he didn’t say. 

*

As soon as they were inside the building, Tony landed outside. He made his way inside as well. 

He caught up with Steve and Bucky. “Hello, boys.” 

Steve turned to him. “How did you know where to find us?” 

“Quinjet tracking.” 

“We’re not going with you,” Steve him. 

Tony was looking at Bucky. “Hello, Barnes. I’m Tony Stark.” 

Bucky nodded, but said nothing at all. 

Tony looked over at Steve. God, he’d missed him. It crossed his mind that Steve might be sleeping with Barnes. Had they even had time? He and Steve had sneaked around and done it in a lot of places, so yeah, they’d probably had time. 

“I told Ross I’d bring you back, but he’s an asshole. I came to help and to tell you that Barnes has been cleared of the bombing. Someone named Zemo did that and he was the one who triggered Barnes, too.”

“We know, Tony.” 

“Aha, here they are, Rogers and Stark and the Winter Soldier.” Zemo said as he came into the room. “I’ve brought you all here to pay for the deaths of my family. You killed my wife, my father and my children! I can’t let you get away with that.” 

“Where are they, Zemo?” 

“The other soldiers? They’re through there. They’re quite harmless now. It seems that supersoldiers _can_ die.” 

“Then why are we here?” 

“This is why.” A video player began to play as he walked from the building. “I am doing to you what you did to my family. I am destroying you.”

The video began to play. It was the footage of Howard and Maria Stark that both Tony and Steve had already seen. They all watched wordlessly again. Bucky had never seen it. Steve was standing close enough that he could feel him tremble. 

No one said a word as Zemo made his way out of the building. 

Zemo was not going to be taken in. He’d planned all along to end his own life, but T’Challa had other ideas and nabbed him before he could kill himself. Zemo would pay for his crimes.

Once the video stopped, no one said anything for a moment. 

Tony finally spoke. “Barnes, I still am not ready to be your friend. I – I will forgive you sometime. Just not today.” 

Bucky nodded. “If you never forgive me, it’d be more than I deserve.” 

Tony thought about it for a moment and shook his head. “That is not true. You are a victim in all this and he,” he nodded toward Steve, “loves you. I need some time is all.” 

He turned to Steve. “You. I love you. Have I actually said that before? If not, consider it said. I’m not taking you in, but you will be a fugitive. Ross is not going to have it any other way. I’ll give you a contact. You can get whatever you need there.” 

He stopped for a second. “Now beat up on me some so I can say you two overpowered me.” 

“We can’t do that,” Steve told him.

Stark pushed a button that removed his suit. They all took pieces of it and beat them up somewhat. Tony put the suit back on and lay down. He activated his emergency protocols.

“Now get. Sam and Natasha will be joining you in your exile. You all do good out there. I’m paying for it. Barnes, get some help and we’ll meet again.” 

“One more thing,” he said to Steve. “Come kiss me.”

Steve knelt down beside him and kissed him quite hungrily, once then again. “I love you, too, Tony. Be safe!” 

And he and Bucky made their escape. 

~~

Part 11

Only a few weeks had passed when the package came with the phone while Tony and Rhodes were in the Avengers Headquarters. Tony opened it and looked at the note. 

_  
Tony,_

_You have no idea how much I miss you. Thanks for all you’ve done for me, for Buck. If you need me, call. If you’re lonely, call. I love you._

_Steve_

Under it was another note, one that went with the narrative that they’d made up. Tony smiled. Steve was sneakier than he’d have thought. 

*

Sam and Natasha were grinning at one another. Steve and Bucky were supposed to meet them for breakfast, but they hadn’t shown up yet. They gazed at one another like lovesick teens most of the time. Sam thought it was cute. Natasha thought so, too, but she told everyone who asked that it was nauseating. 

*

Steve and Bucky had spent the last two weeks talking and getting to know one another again. 

“He really is Howard’s kid? You’re banging Howard’s kid?” Bucky asked as they got ready to meet Sam and Natasha for breakfast.

“Yeah, I guess so. I care about him.” 

“I’m glad for you.” Bucky seemed to be good with the idea that Steve had moved on. 

“I still love you, too, Buck.” 

Bucky looked almost shy for a moment then grinned. “Like you did in the old days?” 

Steve blushed, remembering their first time before the serum. He nodded. 

“I want to kiss you. I haven’t kissed you in over 70 years,” Bucky told him as he sat on the edge of the bed and opened his arms. Steve pushed him onto the bed and they moved around so they were lying side by side. He put his hand on Bucky’s face. And kissed his lips softly. 

Bucky put his metal arm around Steve and kissed him back. Their kisses turned quite a bit more passionate after the first one. Bucky grinned at Steve when they paused, “You’ve improved. Stark teach you that?” 

Steve raised an eyebrow. “Maybe.” 

Their clothing hit the floor soon after as hungry hands tugged and pulled at buttons and zippers. Steve rolled Bucky onto his back and began kissing his way down from his chest. He kissed where his metal arm was connected to his shoulder. Bucky twitched. 

“Still ticklish?” Steve laughed. “Some things don’t change.”

Bucky was almost as finely muscled as Steve was. Steve lapped at tiny dark nipples, one then the other. Bucky trembled beneath him. He kissed down to the patch of dark pubic hair, inhaling Bucky’s musky male scent. Bucky’s cock was standing up, already rock hard and dripping his own fluid down over the silky head. Steve touched him with his tongue. 

“Stevie!” Bucky moaned. 

“I missed you so much,” Steve murmured as he tasted Bucky, licking him like a lollipop. 

Bucky chuckled. “I missed you when I found out who you were.” 

Steve put his head against Bucky’s flank, laughing himself. He took Bucky into his mouth as he wrapped his hand around him. Bucky bucked his hips, pressing into Steve’s mouth. He moved to lie between Bucky’s legs as he sucked him. The metal hand felt strange when it touched his head, but it, too, was a part of Bucky so he continued until Bucky stopped being so quiet and stoic. 

“Feels so good, Steve,” Bucky moaned as he grabbed the sheet in his other hand. He arched his back, urging Steve to take more. Steve did, taking Bucky as deep as he could until he felt Buck’s muscles go tight and heard his breath hitch. “Steve!” he breathed as he came, spilling himself in Steve’s mouth. 

“Please,” Steve said to him as he moved up beside him and grabbed his hand, pulling it over to his own erection. 

“Can I taste you?” Bucky asked. 

“Oh, god yes,” was Steve’s breathless reply. 

Bucky didn’t waste any time, moving down and taking Steve into his mouth. Steve watched, not daring to close his eyes for fear that he’d wake from a dream and that Bucky would be gone. 

“I love you, Buck,” he whispered, tangling his fingers in Bucky’s long, dark hair. He didn’t last long, writhing beneath Bucky as he came. Bucky looked up and grinned as he licked his lip and moved up to kiss Steve, letting him taste himself in the kiss. 

They lay still for several minutes. 

“We should get to breakfast. Nat and Sam will be waiting,” Bucky finally said. 

At breakfast, Bucky told them all that he was going to Wakanda. King T’Challa’s country had the most advanced medicine on the world and the king had assured him that they could help him get rid of the programming left inside his head. 

“I can’t live in the world knowing that a string of words can turn me into a monster again,” he’d explained to Steve last night. 

They all headed to Wakanda soon after. 

T’Challa and his family welcomed them all with open arms. They had dinner with T’Challa and met his sister Shuri, the teenage genius. She adored Bucky the moment they met. 

“I will call you White Wolf. Is that all right with you?” she said to Bucky, as if he were her best friend already.

He nodded. 

She had agreed that it was fine to put Bucky back in cryostasis for a while so she and the other scientists could come up with an effective and safe way to clear his brain of the programming, a gentler way than the one his former masters had used. 

He and Steve got one more night to be together and they made the most of it, loving one another and talking all night long. Early the next morning, they dressed and went to Shuri’s lab.

“You sure about this?” Steve asked Bucky as he sat on the bed that would be his cryostasis chamber. 

“I can't trust my own mind. So, until they figure out how to get this stuff out of my head, I think going back under is the best thing, for everybody.”

Steve felt like his heart was going to break once again as he watched the chamber lid come up. Bucky closed his eyes and the inside of the chamber frosted over. 

Steve needed to be alone for a bit afterward and he headed to one of the hallways with a huge window that looked out over the city and the massive panther statue that stood guardian much as the king himself did. 

There was a small part of him that felt guilty, like he had been cheating on Tony. He loved Tony and he loved Bucky and right now, they were both lost to him. 

He held back his tears as King T’Challa came to stand beside him. 

“Your friend and my father, they were both victims. If I can help one of them find peace…” The king let the phrase trail off. 

“You know, if they find out he’s here, they’ll come for him.”

The king looked out the window. “Let them come.” 

*

Tony called Natasha now and again to ask about Steve. He had been surprised when Bucky went back into cryostasis. 

“Is he all right?” he asked her. 

“He is. He is lonely without you or Barnes. He’s grown a beard, too. He’s pretty sexy, to tell the truth.” 

“Not sure that makes me feel better, either.” 

“It’ll work out, Tony. He loves you.”

~~

Part 12 

Life on the run was not all bad. Steve had good companions in Sam and Natasha. The three of them worked well together and enjoyed one another’s company. Steve knew that Natasha talked to Stark sometimes and he knew that it was important that he not contact him, because they all knew that Ross was having him monitored in order to catch Steve.

They traveled to hotspots all over the world. There seemed to be an endless supply of fuel and information that came in to Natasha usually. Steve didn’t ask her where it came from. 

He thought about Tony a lot. 

He also thought about Bucky a lot. 

What was he going to do? He certainly loved both of them. He had no idea how he would even be able to choose one over the other. Knowing that Natasha knew about them both, he asked her advice. 

“How do I choose?” 

She thought a moment, then said, “Do you have to choose?” 

“What do you mean?”

“You love them both?” 

“You know I do.”

“They love you?” She arched an eyebrow. 

“I think so.” 

“Maybe introduce them?”

“You know Bucky killed the Starks?” He couldn’t imagine Tony ever speaking to Bucky as a friend. 

“The Winter Soldier did that. He isn’t Bucky.”

“I know that, but I’m not sure Tony would be able to reconcile the idea.” 

“Ask him. When Bucky is well, take Stark to see him. Even if they never like one another, maybe they can both agree to love you.”

“That seems like a lot to ask.”

“You won’t know until you try.” 

Steve nodded. It was just speculation at this point anyway, since Bucky was still in cryostasis. And he didn’t know if he’d ever see either of them again. 

*

Not long after that conversation, Shuri removed Bucky from cryostasis.

The scientists had worked with him, but there was more to it than just the serum. They had to reverse the programming and over time, they did just that. Bucky was restored to his own personality and most of his memories. Unfortunately, many of the memories of the Winter Soldier stayed with him as well. 

They had removed his metal arm at his request. Shuri and her team were working on a better one. The new one would be as strong, but it would be removable. The scientists decided they’d design him a more peaceful prosthetic as well. 

He had been out walking in the countryside of Wakanda and decided that he’d like to live away from the city for a while. He needed to think about his life and what he would do with it. 

“If you’re going to live out where the goats are, then you can care for the goats,” Shuri told him with a smile. 

“I think I’d like being a goatherd for a while, a one-armed goatherd.” 

Shuri smiled. “Shall I try to find your handsome friend for you? He asked to be called when you were awakened.” 

“Not yet. I think we might put him in danger from the American government if they find him. It’ll give me some time to think, too.” 

She hugged him and waved as he left the lab to go out on his own.

*

Tony was spending time in New York mostly, still working on things at Avengers Headquarters with Rhodey. One day they were taking a break and Rhodes asked him, “Have you heard from Captain Rogers?”

“Not sure I’d tell you if I had. You sided with Ross in all this.” 

Rhodey laughed. “So did you, Tony. Do you still think he was right?”

“I don’t know. I’d like to think that I took the side I did because it was right. I’m not sure anymore.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I’m not sure of the motives of men like Thaddeus Ross. He’s had it out for all of us since what happened to Betty.”

“Can you blame him?” 

“Yes and no. Betty is his daughter, but he’s at much at fault as Banner was for what happened to her. And Steve. Well, he’s got the balls to stand up to anyone when he thinks he’s right.” 

“But it’s dangerous letting people with the powers that the Maximoff girl has run unchecked.”

“I’m not so sure anymore. What she did was an accident. If the UN had sent her in, then it might still have happened. Signing a piece of paper won’t change that.” 

“I’m not convinced.” 

“You’ve not seen the things Steve has seen. He went to Auschwitz, for god’s sake. He saw what the monsters did. Half of the things he and the Howling commandos did were not sanctioned by the military. They followed Steve. They did what was necessary.”

“Are Rogers and the others all right?” 

Tony nodded. “Yeah, they’re doing okay. I miss them, miss Steve.”

*

In space, an alien named Thanos was pleased at how well his plans to gather all the Infinity Stones were going. His daughters and Ronan were getting things done, but he was starting to feel a little impatient. He wanted to get on with his grand design. 

*

Shuri visited Bucky at least once a week. She hoped he’d feel like having Captain Rogers come visit soon. He was doing well, but she could tell he was lonely. 

“Is it time to call your friend?” she asked him one morning when she stopped by his hut.

“I’d like to see him. I – we haven’t seen much of each other these last 70 years.”

“I’ll see to it, then. Now, tell me if you’d like to see your new arm?” 

“Is it done?” 

“Not yet. Almost. But you can see it.” 

“I’ll wait then. Would you like to meet little Stevie? He was just born a week ago.” 

Shuri laughed. He had grown fond of the goats. “Of course. Who could not like a baby goat?”

Bucky whistled and a mother goat bounded over with a tiny, jet black little one with bright eyes toddling along behind her. When he saw Bucky, the little baby hopped toward him. Bucky bent down to hug the little creature and give it a kiss. 

“So are you going to tell Captain Rogers you named a baby goat after him?” she asked with a grin as she patted the baby’s head.

“I might introduce them if he comes to visit me.” 

“I’ll see to it.”

When she got back to the royal compound, she called the second burner phone that Rogers carried. 

“Captain,” she said in a message she left for him, “the goatherder is well and wishes to show you his baby goats. Let us know.” 

Within an hour, Steve had called her back and made arrangements to come to Wakanda. He, Sam and Natasha arrived several days later. Sam and Natasha would stay in the city while T’Challa took Steve out to the countryside where Bucky dwelled with his herd. 

Steve was nervous. He wasn’t sure why, but most of his nerves disappeared when Bucky came out of his little hut, dressed in native dress of red and black cotton. He looked great. His hair was shiny and it was pulled back into a manbun in the back. He had a dark scarf over his missing arm. 

His eyes lit up when he saw Steve. 

Steve ran to him and threw both arms around him. “Buck! You look great!” 

“I like the beard!” Bucky touched Steve’s beard. “And the long hair.”

“Not much of a disguise, but it’ll have to do.”

T’Challa smiled at them both. “I will leave you alone. I must protect Mr. Wilson and Ms. Romanov from the general and my mother. I’m afraid my mother already has taken a fancy to Sam. And my General is trying to recruit Ms. Romanov into the Dora Milaje.” 

That left the two old friends and lovers alone. 

“I hear you have a baby goat named after me,” Steve said as they walked back toward Bucky’s hut. 

“I do.” He whistled and several goats came running but one small black goat made straight for Bucky. He bent over and petted the little goat when it got close. “Steve, meet Stevie the goat.” 

Steve bent down and when he tried to pet the little goat, it bleated and skittered away. 

“He’s shy. He’ll come around.”

They stood outside the small hut and Bucky pulled Steve close with his good arm, kissing him quickly. Steve responded by wrapping both arms around Bucky and giving him a long, hungry kiss. “I’ve missed you so much.”

Little Stevie was back and butted Steve’s leg. He looked down and laughed. “I think you have a guard goat.”  
[](https://imgur.com/KN4Ac0p)

Bucky scooped up the little goat in one arm and kissed its nose. “I’m all right, little one. Go back to your mommy.” He set the baby down and it butted Steve one more time and ran off. Bucky turned to Steve and grinned. “Where were we?”

Steve kissed him again and they went into Bucky’s little hut. 

Neither man spoke as they silently undressed one another in the darkened hut. They kissed over and over as each piece of clothing hit the floor. There was something almost rapturous about being here with Bucky at last. It was almost as if everything he had done in his life had brought Steve to this moment. They lay on Bucky’s narrow bed, bodies pressed close to one another. Steve touched the end of Bucky’s missing arm then bent to kiss it. Bucky sighed. 

“I love you so much,” Steve murmured as he moved back up to kiss Bucky’s lips. 

“Did you always talk so much?” Bucky asked him and began to kiss his way down Steve’s body, kissing all the expected places but find a few odd ones as well – an elbow, his hipbone where it stuck out a little, a tiny mole on his lower belly. Steve moaned and tried to get Bucky to kiss something a little more traditional, but Bucky was having none of that. He scooted down and nibbled at the back of Steve’s knee. 

“God! I’m ticklish. Stop! Please!” Steve said, begging pitifully and laughing at the same time. 

Bucky murmured, “Tough, punk,” and kept up his kissing and licking in all the places he knew Steve was ticklish. Soon enough, he was back up in Steve’s face, kissing his eyelids, his cheeks then his lips. “I love you so much, Stevie. I never thought I’d ever be able to do this again.” 

“Do you always talk so much?” Steve said, echoing Bucky’s words. 

Bucky reached over to the small table by his bed and grabbed lube that had magically appeared in a box of vegetables sent from Shuri. She often sent him food from the farmer’s market in the city. She must have figured he needed the lube with the company he had coming. It was a little embarrassing to think a kid knew what they were up to. 

Steve lay on his back, lifting his legs so Bucky could prepare him. Bucky opened the tube and put then end in his mouth so he could squeeze the gel out onto his hand and his fingers. He pressed one of his fingers against Steve’s tiny opening, grinning when Steve made a sound. 

“Want me to stop?” he asked. 

Steve growled and Bucky chuckled. 

Bucky moved up between his legs and they didn’t talk much for quite a long time. 

Sometime much later, the two lay together, talking quietly. 

“Buck, would you consider getting to know Tony better?” 

“How much better?”

“Ideally, enough to maybe become his lover as well as mine.”

“I – I’m not sure, but I’d never stand in the way of you and Tony.”

“I don’t want to choose. I love both of you so much that I don’t know how to give either of you up.”

Bucky sighed then smiled a sad smile Steve had seen all too often since he’d found him again. “Bring him here, if he’ll come. Maybe we can, at the very least, be friends.”

Steve rolled up on his side and looked over at Bucky. “I’m so glad to have you back.” He leaned close and kissed him. “Does your serum make you able to, uh, go again without waiting?”

Bucky grinned and raised an eyebrow. “Maybe. Yours?”

“Oh yeah.”

So they did. Again. 

And again. 

~~

Part 13 

Thanos only needed two stones to complete his collection and they were both on some backwater planet - C-53, Earth. It was the planet Loki had attacked several years before. Ronan had been there once some time back as well. He said the only thing formidable there was one woman, Carol Danvers. And she was no longer on the planet. 

Thanos remembered some others from Earth. Tony Stark, in particular, who had thwarted his plan when he’d sent Loki to take over. Well, that insignificant creature would pay, too. 

He was ready to go to Earth and get his stones. The galaxy was waiting for him to fix it. 

*

“Hey, Steve.” Tony was breathless when he realized the phone that rang was his ‘Steve’ phone.

“Tony. How are you?” 

“I’m fine. You?”

“I want to ask you something… and don’t say no until you hear me out.”

“All right. Shoot.” Steve sounded so serious, Tony thought. 

“I love Bucky. You know that, right?”

Tony smiled. “Steve, we all know that.” 

“I love you, too.” 

“And I love you.” 

“I don’t want to give either of you up. I want – I’d like both of you to – do you think you could become friends with Bucky? Maybe more?” The words all came out in a rush. 

Tony didn’t say anything for a long time. 

“Tony?” 

“Have you talked to him about this?”

“I have.” 

“And?”

“He’d like to meet you, somewhere a little better than a secret Russian HYDRA base in Siberia.”

Tony didn’t say anything for a minute. “Can you meet me in London? We can fly on to where he is from there.”

“I can and I will. Thank you, Tony.” 

Tony chuckled. “You must be a hell of a piece of ass, Cap, for both of us to be willing to do this.”

“I try! I love you, Tony.” 

“I’ll text Romanov. Love you, too, Cap.” 

*

Tony was nervous. He wasn’t even sure why. He wasn’t meeting Barnes until they got to Wakanda. He had thought a lot about everything since he’d talked to Steve and realized that if he sacrificed what he had with Steve, then HYDRA would win again and defeat them all yet again. Steve was worth the effort.

Besides, he’d kinda liked Barnes. 

*

Tony wasn’t the only one nervous. 

Bucky remembered what he did. The memory was more like a video or snapshot, but he remembered, mostly because Howard Stark had known him. Of all the things he’d done, and he’d done many horrific things, this one was the one he wished he could take back the most. 

He’d read a lot about Tony on the internet and he seemed a lot like his father, down to his obsession with his work. That wasn’t a bad thing, though. Look at all the great things Stark had done. 

Stark was also quite attractive. He’d liked his beautiful brown eyes when they’d met in Siberia. Maybe this would work out like Steve wanted. 

He hoped so. 

Shuri had arranged for him and his guests to have a suite in one of the best guest residences in Wakanda. It would give the finest penthouse in New York or even Dubai a run for their money in luxury. It had three bedrooms, three baths, and a huge open living area. It had a beautiful view of Wakanda out the window. There was a kitchen and a pool as well. 

He packed his meager belongings and headed for the city. 

Before he left, he turned back and saw Stevie and his mother. “You two look after things for me!” he called out before turning away to go to the city. 

*

“Calm down!” Natasha told Steve as they waited for Tony to land. 

Tony had known Ross would be tracking his private plane, so he flew commercial. The Quinjet that Steve used was waiting at a private field that belonged to a classmate of Tony’s from MIT. They were going to fly the stealth plane to Wakanda. 

“What if he doesn’t come?” Steve looked so scared. 

Sam shook his head. “He will. Just chill. You’re like a girl on prom night!” 

Natasha laughed and patted Steve’s back. 

A car drove up to the landing field. Tony Stark got out and looked around. He wore a dark suit and sunglasses. Steve’s heart pounded at the sight. He did not go out to greet Tony since there were eyes all over. 

Tony tapped on the door to the office. 

Natasha let him in. 

“Where’s St -” and then he saw Steve. “There you are.” Tony crossed the room and hugged Steve. “Are you all right?” he asked, pulling back from the hug. 

“Just terrified that you wouldn’t come.” 

Tony put a hand up to the side of Steve’s face. “Surely you knew I’d be here.”

Steve nodded and they kissed. And kissed. 

Natasha cleared her throat. “Try to keep your pants zipped, boys. Tony, do you have bags? Let’s get them on the plane and get going before shit happens.” 

“What kind of shit?” Tony asked. 

She shrugged. “Don’t know, but shit always happens.” 

They hurried to the Quinjet and got Tony’s stuff and Tony onboard. Just as they were about to take off, a black vehicle drove into the parking lot.

“Go, go, go!” Sam said as Natasha lifted them off the ground and as they rose into the sky, they disappeared from view. 

“Who the hell was that?” Tony asked. 

“I suspect it was someone from Ross. They are constantly hunting Steve. I suspect they followed you,” Natasha told him. “I’m sure they monitor you quite closely, too.”

Tony nodded. “They do. I thought I’d gotten away from them.” 

Steve touched Tony’s knee. “It doesn’t matter. We’re on our way. They can’t come to Wakanda. We’ll be safe there.” 

Tony and Steve spent a lot of the flight silently holding hands. Sam sat up in the cockpit with Natasha. The flight was long and Tony dozed, leaning his head on Steve’s shoulder. 

Finally, after what seemed like days, they landed in the hidden kingdom. Bucky was there with Shuri when they disembarked. He didn’t move when he spotted Steve and Tony, just waited for them to come to him. Shuri was bouncing on her feet. She was anxious to meet Tony Stark. 

“Mr. Stark,” she said as he and Steve approached, “I am Shuri, T’Challa’s genius baby sister. I am dying to take you to my labs.” 

Tony took her proffered hand, a sure sign that he knew who she was and was impressed with her. “I’ve heard of you and your lab. I’m anxious to see it. Seeing as how I’m kinda old and might need the rest, can we plan it for later?”

She nodded, thrilled. She was going to show him what real tech genius was all about! 

Bucky smiled his shy smile at Stark. “Hello, Tony. I’m glad you came.” 

“Uh, Barnes, glad to be here.” 

“So where to, Buck?” Steve asked. 

“We have a suite for the three of us, if you don’t mind,” Bucky said, looking at Tony. 

“Sounds great. Been a long day, coming all the way from New York. Maybe a nap would be nice.” It was late morning in Wakanda. 

Shuri grinned and a car came to transport them to the guest residence beside the royal residence. 

*

Steve was flitting nervously from one room to the other once they went into the huge apartment. Tony finally found the bar and poured himself a glass of Scotch – it was his favorite brand, too. Bucky mostly just sat and stared at them both. 

Tony walked over and sat down on the sofa beside Bucky. “Do you think between us, we could make him sit down?” He nodded toward Steve. 

Bucky grinned at Tony. And Tony’s heart sped up a little. “We can try. Steve can be pretty stubborn, don’t you think?” 

“God, yes.” Tony laughed. “When he makes up his mind, nothing will change it.” 

“Do you think he’s worth all the trouble?” Bucky was grinning at Tony still. Steve had stopped moving and Bucky nodded toward the middle bedroom. “Maybe he’s not.” 

“Not sure right now. He’s acting a little wacky.”

Steve stepped into the room. “You two are awfully funny.”

“We like to think so,” Tony said. 

“Want to sit with us?” Bucky asked and patted the seat between them. 

“We don’t bite,” Tony offered. 

“Speak for yourself,” Bucky told him, causing Tony to stare a little long at Bucky’s mouth. 

“Do you, uh, do you bite hard?” Tony asked. 

Bucky tried to hold back his smile. “Depends.” 

“On?” 

“Whether you taste good or not.” 

“I’m sure I’m tasty,” Tony finally managed with a coy smile. 

“Did I tell you they call me the White Wolf?” Bucky said, his voice getting lower and a lot sexier. 

*

Steve was listening to them from the other room. It was verbal foreplay, he thought. Hell, he was getting excited from hearing that low timber in Bucky’s voice. But then he knew what it meant. 

“Well, I’m Iron Man but I do have an ooey gooey center,” Tony said. 

Shit! Listen to them! 

“I’ll bet it tastes like Scotch, then,” Bucky said. 

They got quiet and Steve peeped. Bucky was kissing Tony. Had it not been for his acute hearing, Steve wouldn’t have heard him murmur, “I know why he’s so crazy over you now.” And they kissed again. 

Steve sat on the bed in the center bedroom. He didn’t dare interrupt them. He wanted them to like each other so badly. Maybe if the left them alone…

*

Bucky liked Tony immediately when they met again. He was handsome as the devil and his cockiness reminded Bucky of Howard. Bucky still mourned the things he had done and wished he could somehow undo them. Steve said he wasn’t to blame, but he knew in his heart that he’d always feel guilty. There was a nice therapist here that he talked to and he’d made him understand that in the end, he could not change the past so he must learn to accept it as best he could and to move on. 

He put his one arm around Tony and hugged him close. 

“Barnes,” Tony said quietly, “I know that you were programmed and that you couldn’t help it. You were a victim as well. I wanted to hate you for a damn long time, but I – I can’t seem to do it.” 

“You know what Steve wants? It’s okay to say no to him, Tony. He won’t be angry. I think he just needs us to tell him it’s all right for him to love us both, separate or together.”

Tony kissed his cheek and touched it with his hand. “I don’t think I want to say no.”

They kissed again. “Should we wait for Steve to join us?” Bucky asked. 

Tony began to remove the black scarf that covered Bucky’s missing arm. He kissed his neck as he did so and murmured “no” into Bucky’s ear. 

~~

Part 14 

Bucky shivered as Tony nipped his ear with his teeth. The air in the suite was charged with sexual tension. Besides what Tony was doing, Bucky was turned on by the thought that Steve was listening and maybe watching them. 

He sought Tony’s mouth for another kiss. 

“I feel like I know you. What little time I got to spend with Steve, he talked about you all the time,” Bucky told him between kisses. 

“Same here.” Tony pulled back and looked at the native clothing he wore. “Does this thing come off?” 

Bucky undid the belt and he and Tony began removing the garment. When his chest was exposed, Tony touched it, laying his hand flat on Bucky’s chest. “You’re as buff as Steve is.”

“Goat herding is hard work.” Bucky laughed. 

“I expect you looked this way before the goats.” 

Bucky chuckled. “Do I get to see your scars?”

“God, are you like Steve and get all wiggly over scars?” Tony asked him as he bent close to kiss Bucky’s hard muscled chest. 

“Maybe. Does Steve like scars?” 

“God yes. He licks them and kisses them.”

“And it makes you crazy, I’m guessing.” 

“Goes straight to my groin.” 

“He doesn’t have any. I only have a missing arm. There isn’t much scarring, as you can see.” He held the stump of his arm out for Tony to see. Tony kissed it. “Not sure I’ll be able to control myself if you do that again.” 

Tony kissed his mouth again as he caressed the end of the missing limb. 

“You have too many clothes on,” Bucky murmured as he pulled Tony’s white shirt tail out of his pants. He rather deftly began to unbutton it. Tony helped him. In a few minutes, both were down to boxers. Bucky asked, “Are you sure about this?” 

“Are you?” Tony countered. 

Bucky nodded. “Yeah. I like you. Liked you when we met before.” He nodded toward the bedroom. “He loves you so you must be all right.” 

The two men stretched out on the big sofa, face to face, holding onto one another. Bucky scooted down so he could kiss the remnants of the Arc Reactor scar, lapping at Tony’s nipples, one then the other. 

Tony moaned. Bucky kissed down Tony’s chest to his belly then looked up. “You want this or should we see if he’ll come out of hiding?” 

Both of them laughed and Bucky moved back up to hug Tony with his good arm. 

Steve stood in the doorway of the bedroom, looking at them. “I leave for a few minutes and both of you lose your clothes?” He laughed and headed toward the sofa. They both sat up and made room for him. “I feel overdressed,” Steve told them as he sat, putting an arm around them both. 

“Does that bedroom you were in have a big bed?” Tony asked. 

Steve nodded and they all walked arm in arm to the bedroom. When they arrived, Bucky and Tony began tugging on Steve’s clothes and soon he was down to his boxers, white ones with his shield on them. Tony burst out laughing. Steve shrugged. “Just trying to remember who I am.” 

“No way to forget that,” Tony told him as they moved toward the king-sized bed. Tony sat down and reached for Steve’s boxers, sliding them down and off. 

Bucky grinned. “You looked good naked even when you weighed 95 pounds.” 

Tony looked at Bucky. “Really? You two – even then?”

Steve reached for Tony’s underwear. “The night before he left for the war. I’d loved him forever. He ditched two girls to be with me.” Tony lifted his ass and let Steve strip his underwear off. 

“Two, huh?” Tony asked.

Bucky removed his own underwear and moved up onto the bed. He moved behind Tony and kissed his neck, pulling Tony up onto his knees on the side of the bed. Steve dropped to his knees on the floor in front of Tony. They both put their arms around him, one kissing his neck and shoulders, the other kissing his chest. 

Tony sighed and closed his eyes, losing himself in the sensation. He felt Bucky’s arousal pressing against his backside as he turned his head so they could kiss. He’d been skeptical about this, but had gone along since Steve had wanted it so badly. But now, god, he wanted them both. He put one hand back to touch Bucky and tangled the other in Steve’s long dark hair. 

Bucky pulled him back up into the bed and Steve followed them, climbing up and lying down in front of Tony while Bucky had stayed behind. Steve kissed Tony, then Bucky, over Tony’s shoulder. 

“I’m not sure I can survive the two of you,” Tony told them.

“We’ll be gentle,” Steve promised before he kissed him again. 

“Or we won’t,” Bucky purred against his ear as he reached around to caress Tony’s cock with his hand. Tony arched into his hand. 

“Buck, is there something we can use here or -” Steve started to ask. 

“In the drawer. I was optimistic,” Bucky told him with a grin.

“But who’s going to, um, do whom?” Tony asked. 

Bucky moved enough so he could look Tony straight in the eye and said, “I really want to be inside you. I – yeah, I want you, Tony.” 

Steve kissed each of them in turn and said, “So a Bucky in the middle thing?” 

“You wouldn’t have been so bossy when you weighed 95 pounds,” Bucky laughed.

“Yes, I would have and I was,” Steve leaned over Tony and kissed Bucky again. 

Tony wiggled around between them until he lay on his back. He looked over at Bucky. “Will this work?” He lifted his legs. 

Steve was on the side of the bed where the nightstand was. He opened the drawer and grabbed the bottle of lube. He poured lube on his hand and on Bucky’s hand as well. Bucky touched Tony’s ass while Steve wrapped his hand around Bucky. 

“If this kills me, tell everyone I died happy,” Tony told them as Bucky pressed one finger inside him. He wiggled until he found the spot that made Tony hiss and jerk. Then he added a second finger. 

“That’s it,” Bucky murmured as he moved between Tony’s legs. He withdrew his fingers and took hold of himself from Steve, guiding his cock to push slowly into Tony. 

Steve whispered as he watched. “Push all the way in, baby.”

Bucky bent his knees on either side of Tony until he was completely sheathed inside him. Steve moved behind him and slipped his own slickened fingers inside Bucky. 

“Oh god!” Bucky ground out. 

Steve had never been able to be patient when he was with Bucky and he wasn’t now as he lubed himself quickly and placed the head of his cock against Bucky’s tight little hole. When Bucky thrust into Tony, Steve pressed all the way into Bucky. 

It should have been awkward and difficult, but it wasn’t. They moved as if they were made to be together. Both Steve and Bucky were strong enough to move without hurting Tony. Bucky put his arm under Tony’s leg, making it easier for both him and Tony as he fucked him, slowly and quite gently at first. 

Steve wasn’t able to go slow at all once he was inside Bucky. This was something he’d only dreamed of, something still a bit unbelievable to him, even as he was there with both of the people he loved. 

“So good, Tony,” Bucky ground out as he was pleasured from both front and back. The intensity was too much for him to sustain for very long. 

Tony had managed somehow to get his hand between them to touch his own cock while Bucky was riding him hard. His eyes went wide and his breath hitched as he came, quite unexpectedly when Bucky managed to find that spot inside him again with his cock. Tony cried out, his whole body going rigid for a moment. “Bucky! Oh god, Bucky! I’m coming!” 

Bucky couldn’t hold back once he felt Tony’s inner muscles tighten around him. Tony saw it in his eyes and then felt his release as Bucky came deep inside him. He held on tight and looked into Bucky’s eyes. 

Steve came last, spurred on by Bucky’s orgasm. “Bucky!” he cried out while his eyes sought Tony’s. He felt pleasure, but he felt so much more. His heart sang that he had them both, his two great loves, here with him, loving him and one another. 

There was nothing that could be better than that. 

Nothing. 

~~

Part 15 

The three men lay tangled together in Bucky’s bed, as they decided the middle bedroom was Bucky’s. Tony, not being enhanced, was quite exhausted, given what he’d just done plus the stress he’d felt over coming there in the first place. He found himself dozing off as his two lovers snuggled up on either side of him.

“We could get up and let you rest,” Steve told him, smoothing Tony’s tousled hair with his hand as he kissed Tony’s cheek. 

“I’m the youngest one here,” he told them. 

Bucky kissed his other cheek. “Can I call you baby?” he asked. 

Tony chuckled. “Only when we’re naked, Bandit.” 

“Bandit?” Steve asked. 

“Like a slot machine,” Tony said. “He’s my one-armed Bandit.” 

Steve looked over Tony to Bucky. He laughed and told Bucky, “He calls me Capsicle.” 

Bucky flopped back onto his back laughing. “Then I’ll call you baby for sure.” 

Tony didn’t look upset in the least. He closed his eyes to rest them. 

“I’m hungry,” Steve said. “Is there any food here?”

“In Wakanda?” Bucky asked. 

“No, in the fridge,” Steve said. “You’ve been alone too long.”

“Hey, I’m not alone. I’ve got goats – one goat in particular – Stevie.” 

“Oh god. He was tiny the last time I saw him.” 

“Well, he still is. He’s a pygmy goat. He’s my protector.” 

Tony opened one eye and looked at Steve. “Stevie? He named his goat Stevie?” 

Steve shrugged. “He was never very good at naming animals. He had a dog named Dog when we were boys. I suppose Stevie is a step up.” 

All three of them were laughing now. 

“Do we have food?” Steve asked. 

“Go look. I expect Shuri filled the fridge with something, but God knows what. She is a teenager,” Bucky told him. “Could be hot pockets and salsa.” 

Steve got up and wandered into the other room naked. He was gone a few minutes and came back with a Coke and a sandwich, peanut butter and jelly from the looks of it. 

“Don’t get crumbs on the bed,” Bucky said. 

“What?” Steve said. “It’s covered in sweat and come as it is. A few crumbs will make it dirty?” 

Tony moaned a mock moan. “Are you two always so annoying?” 

Bucky kissed him right on lips. “We are. Does that bother you?” 

Tony grinned at him. “God, no. I’m used to being the most annoying one around most of the time.” 

“Did I never tell you what a jerk Bucky is?” Steve said as he munched on his sandwich. 

“Then why do you keep him around?” Tony asked. 

“He says it’s ‘cause my dick is bigger than his,” Bucky said, trying to keep a straight face. 

“Nooo! What I said is you were a big dick!” Steve said and they all dissolved into laughter. 

Tony smacked his forehead. “God, I’m fucking two idiots!” 

Steve took a last drink of his soda and flopped back onto the bed beside Tony. “Wanna go see the goats?” he asked, running a finger down Tony’s chest. 

“Now?” Tony asked. 

“Well, we might need showers. We all smell a little like -”

“Jizz!” Bucky added helpfully. 

They all broke up laughing again.

“I’m going to shower then I’m going to take a nap,” Tony told them and headed to the room where he’d dropped his bags. 

Bucky reached for Steve’s Coke on the table by the bed. “I – he – damn, Steve, he’s hot as shit.” 

Steve laughed. “Yes, he is.”

Bucky wandered to the kitchen for a sandwich and came back to the bed. Steve moved close to him on the bed while he ate. 

“You can’t have my sandwich,” Bucky told him. 

“I was gonna kiss you.” 

Bucky grinned at him. “You can do that.” He did, and ducked his head to steal a bite of Bucky’s sandwich, too. Bucky swatted him and put the sandwich on the night table then he pulled Steve close and really kissed him. 

Within a few minutes, they were engrossed in one another on the bed. Tony came back in, wearing his flannel sleeping pants. He sat in the chair by the bed.

“Come on in,” Bucky said.

“I might be the baby, but I think I might sit this one out for a bit. Don’t let me stop you two.” 

Steve and Bucky went back to their naked making out as Tony watched. Being with Bucky always excited the hell out of Steve and having Tony watching made for even more excitement. He pretty much forgot Tony when Bucky reached between them with his one hand and began to stroke Steve. 

He forgot Tony until he felt the bed dip when Tony sat down. Steve rolled over onto his back and reached for Tony. “Join us?”

“Yeah, but I’m gonna need another shower when we’re done.” 

*

The three men had driven out to Bucky’s little hut by the lake. As soon as they got out of the golfcart, a black goat bounded for them and stopped just short of their feet, sliding into Bucky. 

He bent down and rubbed the little creature’s head. 

“Tony, this is Stevie! He’s already met Steve.” 

“Yeah, and he headbutted me. He a jealous fellow,” Steve said.

Tony looked alarmed as the goat wandered over to him and banged its head against his knees. He bent down and the little goat bleated and nodded at him. 

“Stevie likes you!” Bucky declared.

Tony patted his head and the little goat leaned against his leg. When Steve tried to pet him, he backed up but finally relented and allowed a pat on the head. 

“Good boy!” Bucky said to the goat. “These are my – well, they’re mine and I hope they visit us here a lot.” He looked quite hopeful as he smiled at both Tony and Steve. 

Steve looked at them both. “Guys, I’m going back to the city for the day. I need to catch up with Sam and Natasha and I’ll be back later to pick you up. It’ll give you some time alone to get to know one another.” 

Tony nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” He kissed Steve’s lips briefly, as did Bucky. 

Steve drove away, looking in the rearview mirror at both the men he loved on their knees, talking to a goat. He smiled to himself. Life was definitely getting better. 

*

The three men stayed in Wakanda for almost a month. They formed a bond that went all three ways. Tony admired Bucky for his ability and willingness to start over, and Bucky appreciated that Tony seemed to be able to forgive him. Steve was just thrilled that they were all together. 

*

Thaddeus Ross threw the report across the room. “I _know_ that Stark is somewhere with Rogers! They can’t fool me! Rogers pretends to be so righteous and we all know he’s sucking Stark’s fucking dick every chance he gets. They sicken me.” 

Rage shot through Maria Hill at his words. “I gave you the report you asked for. I don’t know where Rogers is. And I don’t exactly work for you, so you can keep your homophobic crap to yourself, if you don’t mind.” She turned and left the man staring after her. He seemed a little surprised that anyone would talk back to him. 

*

Somewhere in space, Thanos and his children had just witnessed the destruction of Asgard. They sighted the ship of refugees on their sensors. 

“There they are. Let’s pay them a visit. There’s no way that Loki would leave the Tesseract in a burning Asgard. He must have it with him. We can cull the people while we are there. Soon, that problem will be solved and I can finally rest,” Thanos told his children.

Corvus Glaive nodded to his Master. “Soon, my lord, we will have brought your gift to all the galaxy!” 

They boarded the Asgardian ship with Thor and Loki aboard. When they blew it up a little later, Thanos had his stone and the two brothers were no more. All he needed now were the two stones on Earth and he could clean up the galaxy like he’d dreamed of doing.

*

“It’s hard to believe that this is our last night together,” Steve said. “I don’t want this to end.”

Tony nodded. “I heard from Maria Hill. Ross is having a shit fit to find you, Steve. He seems sure we are together. Maria said he made some comment about you sucking my dick.” 

Bucky laughed. “Well, he’s not wrong.” 

“But he is a pompous asshole,” Steve added. 

“And a potentially dangerous one. He’d like nothing more than to see you two in the Raft,” Tony said and added, “I can’t let that happen!” 

“I don’t think we’re in any danger here, but we can’t stay here forever. There are things out there that need attention,” Steve said. 

“I’m not certain Iron Man is completely retired either. I’m itching to put on the suit again soon.” 

They had one last night of love and passion before Tony flew back to London with Steve, Sam and Natasha. Bucky decided to stay in Wakanda for a while. It was safe and he still had some work to do with his therapists. 

Tony took a commercial flight back to New York while the three Avengers went to Berlin, their favorite hiding place. 

~~

Part 16 

Only days after Tony returned to New York, the Hulk crashed through the roof of the Sanctum Sanctorum and told Dr. Stephen Strange that Thanos was coming. 

Dr. Strange was a different kind of hero and one that most of the Avengers had never heard of. He was a sorcerer and while the Avengers protected the world against aliens and criminals, Strange, as Sorcerer Supreme, protected the world from the unseen and hidden dimensions in time and space. 

The Hulk changed into Bruce Banner after he landed and explained to Strange and Wong what, rather who, was coming and what they planned for Earth and the rest of the universe as well. 

Thanos planned to use the stones to destroy half of all life in the universe. He said it would wipe out the problem of over population, dwindling resources, and bring the universe back into balance. It was a rather extreme measure. 

“We need to find Tony Stark,” Bruce told Strange. 

Strange nodded. He didn’t question Banner’s sincerity nor did he need to verify his story. He knew of the Infinity Stones. In fact, he wore the Time Stone on his chest. He located Tony Stark, and he and Banner set out to speak to him, to enlist his help. 

Tony and Pepper were in Central Park, talking about SI and Tony was telling her about a dream he had had the night before. 

“We were going to have a kid. And we were naming him after your uncle – Morgan?” 

Pepper laughed. “I’m afraid that ship has sailed, Tony. Not sure Steve or Bucky can have babies with you.” 

Tony shrugged. “I’d marry you.”

She shook her head and smiled. “If you loved me like you love Steve, I’d jump at your proposal.” She hugged him. 

As they hugged, he became aware of - something. 

“Tony Stark? I’m Dr. Stephen Strange. I need you to come with me.”

Tony thought he was a joke or someone selling something when he saw Strange and the ring of fire he stepped through, until Bruce stepped out from behind Strange. He looked scared and so lost. He hugged Tony, then Pepper. 

What could he do but go with them? 

They took him to a place on Bleeker Street called the Sanctum Sanctorum, and a guy named Wong talked about the Infinity Stones. It turned out that Strange had one of the stones and they all knew where at least one more of them was – the Mind Stone was inside Vision. 

And Thanos was coming for both of them. 

After Wong did his explaining, Bruce told Tony that Thanos was the one who sent Loki to New York. 

Tony and Strange sparred verbally for a bit until Bruce reminded them that they needed to find Vision and they needed to get Steve to help. Now. Tony explained about Steve being in exile and Vision being off the grid with Wanda and Pietro. He pulled out his phone and before he was able to call, he heard a sound outside. 

Thanos’ children made their appearance, offering Tony the same awful choice they offered all their other victims over the years, to die at their hands in order to make the universe whole again. Neither Tony nor Strange were inclined to go along with them and they fought. 

Bruce tried to Hulk out, but the Hulk simply refused to come out and play. He’d had enough. 

Somehow, Tony, Strange and a kid from Queens, who dressed like a spider, ended up on Thanos’ bizarre donut shaped ship, while Bruce found the phone that Tony had dropped. As Tony headed out to space, Bruce made a phone call.

*

“Slow down. Bruce?” Steve had answered his phone and was having trouble following Bruce’s words. 

“Tony’s gone into space and Thanos has come for the Stone in Vision’s head.” 

“Thanos?” 

Bruce gave him the quick explanation. 

“And Tony is where?”

“In a ship. He went up to the ship and it left the planet!”

“We’ll find Vision.”

He, Sam and Natasha went to Scotland, where Wanda, Vision and Pietro were hiding out. They ran into two of Thanos’ children – Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive. They injured Glaive and sent both of them packing, but Proxima Midnight made them a promise to return and finish what they’d started.

The exiles boarded the Quinjet and headed home to Avengers Headquarters in New York. 

Rhodes was there when they arrived. Secretary Ross was there by hologram. 

“Mr. Secretary,” Steve said when they walked in and he saw Secretary Ross. 

“You’ve got some nerve. I’ll give you that,” Ross said.

Natasha spoke up. “You could use some of that right now.” 

“The world’s on fire. And you think all is forgiven?” Ross asked Steve. 

Steve looked at Ross dead in the eye on the hologram. “I’m not looking for forgiveness. And I’m way past asking for permission. Earth just lost her best defender and we’re here to fight,” he said as he took a step toward the hologram, “and if you wanna stand in our way, we’ll fight you, too.” 

“Arrest him,” Ross said to Rhodes.

“All over it,” Rhodes answered and turned Ross’ feed off. Enough of that, he thought. Hugs and greetings were given all around. 

They talked about what they needed to do, given that Thanos was after the Stone in Vision’s head. Vision said the Mind Stone needed destroying. Bruce thought they might be able to remove it and save Vision, but he wasn’t confident that he could do it. 

“I know a place,” Steve told them. 

*

They landed in Wakanda a few hours later. The king and his people had been told what and who was coming. They were there at the landing pad to greet Steve and his friends. 

Steve looked over them all and found the face he sought. 

Bucky nodded and smiled at him. 

He made his way to Bucky and hugged. “How you been, Buck?” 

Bucky grinned. “Not bad for the end of the world.” 

Throwing caution to the wind, Steve kissed him.

“Tony?” Bucky asked. 

“He left on one of Thanos’ ships. No word from him since then.” A look of pain crossed Steve’s face and Bucky hugged him tighter. 

“Let’s do this thing!” Bucky said and for a second, Steve saw the Winter Soldier once more. “Let’s save the world and get our Tony back.”

*

Titan was coming apart, a planet off its axis spiraling toward destruction. Tony and Dr. Strange somehow landed the ship. They had barely gotten off when Peter Quill and his people came rushing in, guns drawn. It didn’t take long for them to figure out that they were on the same side. They all wanted to destroy Thanos. 

“He’s on his way,” Tony said, “I have a plan…” 

*

The armies of Thanos attacked Earth. Even though Wakanda was contained within a force field, they all knew that eventually it would fail. They needed to give Shuri enough time to safely remove the Mind Stone from Vision, then Wanda would destroy it. 

T’Challa gave Steve a set of vibranium gauntlets instead of the shield he’d lost as part of their plan to make Ross think Steve and Tony were not speaking. They felt like T’Challa had them made just for him. Maybe he had. 

Thanos had a vast army, more than they’d imagined. This would not be an easy battle at all.

Suddenly, lightning hit the battlefield and they all knew what was coming. Thor and Rocket Raccoon landed. Thor lived still and he was bearing an axe now. His sister had destroyed his hammer and he had gotten his new axe forged from a dying star, at the same forge his hammer had been made in. It would suffice, Steve thought, looking at the lightning in Thor’s eyes. 

*

On Titan, Dr. Strange told them that they had one single chance in over 14 million to defeat Thanos and save half of the galaxy. Those seemed like the same odds they usually faced, thought Stark. 

Then everything went to hell. Thanos showed up with the Soul Stone already in his gauntlet. He had sacrificed his daughter, Gamora, to get that one. Tony, with the help of the others, tried to remove the gauntlet from Thanos, but Peter Quill, in a fit of rage over the loss of Gamora, attacked Thanos while Mantis had him entranced and woke him. In the ensuing battle, Thanos impaled Tony with his own suit. Strange gave Thanos the Time Stone, asking him to spare Tony’s life. 

Once Thanos put the green Time stone into his gauntlet, he left a severely injured Tony Stark and his companions on an unstable and dying planet with no way to leave it. Tony used his suit to seal the wound so he wouldn’t bleed out, but that was all he could do. They would wait. And try not to die before help came, if it ever did.

Thanos was headed for Earth and the last of the stones. 

*

Thanos appeared in Wakanda. 

The fighting was ongoing in the fields, but had moved into the surrounding forests as well. Slowly, the invaders were taking the upper hand.

The science lab had been breached, so Wanda, Pietro and Vision had fled out into the forests as well. Shuri had joined in the battle with her own gauntlets.

Steve and Thor had gone into the forest, searching for Thanos. They decided to take the battle to him.

They found him standing before Vision and Wanda. 

“Leave them alone,” Steve said. 

Thanos laughed. “Captain America. Do you think that you can stop me? I have a divine purpose and your puny efforts will not stop me.”

Thor came up on Thanos’ other side. “But I will stop you.” 

Thanos laughed, loud and long, at them. “Ah, the Asgardian lives. Neither of you has the power to do anything to me! I will complete my mission and the universe will thank me for what I have -”

Thor swung his axe and before Thanos could utter the last word, his head was severed and hit the ground with a thud. Wanda didn’t hesitate one second as she turned her red magic to Thanos’ corpse and blew it up right then and there. The gauntlet with the stones rolled free.

Steve and Thor stared at one another for a moment then Thor picked up the Titan’s head, Steve picked up the Gauntlet, and they headed to the battlefield. It was almost unbelievable how fast the battle ground to a halt once Thor exited the woods with Thanos’ head held high on a stick he’d picked up from the forest floor. 

Thanos’ armies stopped their assault and began to retreat. The Wakandans and the Avengers kept fighting them, destroying many of them and much of their equipment, before they were able to escape into space. 

Finally, the battle was over. 

Bucky rushed to Steve and threw his one real arm and his fine new metal one around him. “You’re safe!” 

“We have to figure out how to get Tony home,” Steve told him. 

Bucky nodded. 

*

The Avengers went back to the Avengers Headquarters in New York again. They had helped with the cleanup in Wakanda as best they could, but they were anxious to get back and work on finding their lost friends.

Nick Fury called. “Expect a visitor soon,” was all he said. 

The visitor simply appeared about an hour later as they sat in the conference room and talked about how they might get Tony and his companions back. 

She was a small woman, dressed in a suit that had a big gold star on the front. Her hair was blond and she exuded confidence. Steve and Natasha were talking and when they turned around, there she stood. 

“Nick Fury said you needed some help. I’m Carol Danvers, by the way.” She stuck her hand out to Steve. He took it. “What can I do for you?”

“Not sure what Fury thinks one woman can do,” Steve told her. “Our friend and several others have been lost in space, taken to a place called Titan.” 

“I can find them. Did Fury not tell you that I can fly?” she asked quite matter-of-factly, a tiny smile playing at the corner of her mouth. 

“He didn’t tell us anything,” Rhodes answered her. 

“That’s Fury for you. Sounds like he hasn’t gotten much more forthcoming since I saw him last.”

Steve nodded. “That’s definitely Fury.” 

“Well, I’m going to find your friends.” 

And she was gone. 

*

In space somewhere near Titan, Peter Quill’s ship was a mess. 

They got the ship off the planet and got the life support system working. They had enough fuel for a few days, but not enough power to go anywhere. They sent out a distress signal and waited, hoping that someone would eventually show up. Hopefully, that would happen before they all died. 

Dr. Strange had worked on Tony’s injuries and made him as comfortable as possible. There was little more he could do with only a First Aid kit from Quill’s ship, but they did find enough pain killers to make the injury bearable until they could get him home. 

*

Carol Danvers showed up as a bright object in the sky direction in front of them. 

“What the hell is that?” Quill asked, shielding his eyes from the light. 

“Looks like a woman, Quill.” Drax said. He was always quite literal. 

“Let’s see what she wants,” Quill flipped open all com channels. “Unidentified woman, who are you?”

“I’m Carol Danvers. Do you have Tony Stark on that ship?” 

“Who wants to know?” Quill asked, trying to sound important, as he often did when he wasn’t sure if he were talking to friend or foe. 

“Steve Rogers sent me.”

“I don’t know a Steve Rogers.” 

“I do,” Tony spoke up weakly from the back of the ship. 

Quill said, “Stark says he knows Steve Rogers. What can we do for you?” 

“Would you like a tow to Earth?” she said. 

“You don’t have a ship.” 

She laughed. “I don’t need one.” 

*

Steve had just finished shaving off his beard when he felt the whole building begin to vibrate. Bucky came running into the bathroom. He was still bearded with his long hair pulled back into a ponytail. 

“A ship is coming in. Rocket says it’s Quill’s ship.” 

Steve wiped his face and he and Bucky went out to the landing field with all of the others. Carol Danvers was carrying the ship and she set it down on the field. The ramp opened and Peter Quill came down first, followed by Peter Parker and Dr. Strange, carrying Tony between them. The others followed behind.

Steve and Bucky rushed forward and both of them kissed Tony, one on each side as they took him from the others. 

“Thought I’d never see either of you again. Did you get him?”

“Thanos? Yeah, Thor used his new axe and relieved him of his head.” 

Tony nodded. “Good deal. Do we think we could get me to a hospital? I think I might need some repairs.” 

*

Steve and Bucky sat hand in hand in the surgical waiting room. Pepper and Rhodes were there as well. The doctor came out and looked at all of them. 

“Miss Potts? Captain Rogers?” he asked. 

They both stood and walked toward the doctor. 

“He’s going to be fine. Someone took excellent care of his wound before he got here. We just cleaned it up and stitched him up. You can see him as soon as we get him back to his room.” 

Bucky was behind Steve and put a hand on his waist. 

“I’ll send someone to let you know when he’s in his room.” 

Steve turned and hugged Bucky. 

About an hour later, they walked into Stark’s room. He looked small and frail in the hospital bed. 

“How are you feeling?” Steve asked.

“Like I’ve been impaled with my own suit,” was Tony’s answer. 

“Doctor says you’re gonna be fine.” 

“Ask me again tomorrow,” Tony said and dozed off. 

~~

Part 17 

The little house by the lake was simple and homey. It had been someone’s vacation cabin before they’d bought it the year before. While it was kind of small for a man like Tony Stark, it fit their needs fine. It had everything they needed – a kitchen, room for a huge comfy sofa and a bedroom with room for a king-sized bed. 

“What do we want for dinner?” Bucky asked, walking out onto the porch.

“We could go into town and eat,” Steve said. 

“But we’d have to actually shower and dress,” Tony said. 

They all looked at one another and smiled. 

After Thanos had been defeated and Tony had recovered, Ross had made some noises about jail for Steve and Bucky. Steve didn’t know what had transpired, but Tony had gone to talk to Ross and the whole thing had simply ceased to be an issue. 

Tony had asked them both to come live with him and they’d agreed. The lake house suited them all. 

“Did you check to see if the Goji berries needed picking?” Tony asked Bucky. 

Bucky laughed. “Well, about that. You won’t have to worry about having to eat them.” Tony was not known to particularly like healthy foods. 

Tony looked up at Bucky, who was still standing up. “Why?”

“Stevie and his wives ate them all.” 

“All of them? There must have been several gallons of berries,” Steve chimed in. 

“Well, the girls are all pregnant,” Bucky told them. “They eat a lot more.”

“All of them – all five?” Tony asked. 

“Yep. The vet came out yesterday while you two were off playing superhero.” 

Iron Man and Captain America had been called to an incident the day before. Actually, they’d gone to a children’s hospital to visit the kids. The younger Avengers handled most of the calls these days. Some of Thanos’ children popped by now and then to get a little revenge. The Avengers sent them packing every time. 

“So we’ll have eleven goats?” Steve asked. 

“Well, probably there will be a few sets of twins,” Bucky answered, grinning. He loved his goats. 

“If you have too many goats, we might send you back to Wakanda,” Tony told him. 

Bucky laughed bent down to kiss him. “And who would be the filling in your sandwich then?” 

Tony shrugged. “All right. You are pretty good at doing laundry, too. I guess we’ll keep you around.” 

Almost as if summoned, Stevie the goat bounded up onto the porch and bleated at Tony. He looked very stern as he did it, too. Then he hopped down and returned to his harem, as Steve called them. 

“I guess he told me,” Tony said. He grabbed Bucky and pulled him back down for another kiss, this one a bit more passionate than the previous one. 

Bucky sat in Tony’s lap and put his arm around him. “Come with me inside and I’ll tell you what he said.” He looked over at Steve, who was watching them intently. “You come, too.”

Steve laughed. “He probably told us to be careful of horny goatherders.” 

They all laughed and went inside. It was several hours before they thought about dinner again.

[](https://imgur.com/6Y9JesG)


End file.
